Afghan Canadians sue feds, claim Ukrainians ‘treated better’ than Afghan refugees

Facebook/ Chrystia Freeland and THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

Two Afghan Canadians are claiming their fellow countrymen received inferior treatment after the fall of Kabul compared to Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russian aggression.

A former language and culture adviser who served NATO in Afghanistan filed a lawsuit last July against the federal government for allegedly not permitting his family to seek refuge in Canada.

Another advisor previously filed a similar lawsuit in May.

Both accused the feds of offering advantages to Ukrainians following the Russian invasion not similarly provided to Afghans during the Taliban takeover in 2021.

Canada permitted an unlimited number of Ukrainians to work and study in the country for three years while on an emergency visa.

“[These] benefits are conferred upon Ukrainians that are not conferred upon foreign nationals from other countries, including from other countries experiencing devastating wars and human rights abuses,” the adviser who filed in July alleges in his court submissions.

More than half of the Afghans who assisted the Canadian military are still stuck in Afghanistan, which is once again under the rule of the oppressive Taliban regime.

READ MORE: https://t.co/dSuXjMWxfh pic.twitter.com/n91uwtJDmb

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) March 25, 2022

To date, Canada has welcomed 175,729 Ukrainian refugees since February 2022 — more than quadruple the number of Afghan refugees who fled to Canada since August 2021.

While the Crown has yet to file a defence against the discrimination claims, the government — in a similar case before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal — argued that unique crises require unique responses.

During the Canadian mission in Afghanistan, the Canadian Armed Forces recruited roughly 45 Afghan Canadian citizens to serve alongside soldiers as language and cultural advisers (LCAs).

The former NATO adviser behind the lawsuit is one of the few Afghan Canadian citizens who helped NATO member militaries in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2011.

In his court filing, the adviser contends his six siblings and their families face an imminent threat of torture, death or injury owing to their familiar ties to him.

Unfortunately, they never qualified for refuge in Canada, which the lawsuit states would not have been the case if they were Ukrainians.

Though the Russia-Ukraine war has no end in sight, several Ukrainian refugees eye a return home, having learned that Canada is not the be-all and end-all they thought.https://t.co/NzOLqJBMKW

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) August 25, 2023

While the federal government launched a special program in March to bring some Afghan families to safety, its criteria remain restrictive.

As of writing, the program excludes some extended family members, including adult nieces and nephews. It also excludes LCAs who worked for NATO rather than the Canadian military.

The feds claim their criteria is the byproduct of a “range of stakeholders” but did not specify further.