Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has suspended subsidized temporary accommodation in Pakistan for people who applied through a special immigration program for Afghans who served with the Canadian government or military.
Special measures for Afghans wanting to immigrate to Canada were introduced by the federal government in the summer of 2021 after the Taliban took power and many former Western government officials went into hiding.
The federal government has begun covering the accommodation costs for Afghans who travel to Pakistan while they wait for their applications to be processed.
“The provision of temporary accommodation in Pakistan under the Afghanistan Resettlement Scheme was an exceptional, temporary measure. Temporary accommodation was necessary due to the time it would take to process the large volume of applications and operational challenges in Pakistan,” IRCC told CBC News in a media statement.
The department also announced it would spend $21.8 million on applicant accommodation in 2022-2023 and a further $21 million in 2023-2024.
IRCC said it would continue to pay housing fees for Afghans whose cases were already being processed, but told those who began their applications after June 30 that they would not be able to access subsidized housing unless they were “urgent and vulnerable cases.”
Lawyers and immigrants question decision to cut insurance coverage
Vancouver-based immigration lawyer Zur Suleman said the decision to end shelter grants could leave some Afghan applicants with nowhere to go.
“I understand that governments need to be careful with how they spend their funds, but we don’t want to be in a position where we are being overly cautious with our budget and depriving families of housing and food after we have made national promises to those individuals and families who have provided services to the Government of Canada,” he said.
“We would ask the government to be cautious in terms of not providing services and, of course, to accelerate the program.”
Asked about how much the Canadian government has spent so far to provide protection to Afghan applicants, Suleman said it’s about doing the right thing by those who have sacrificed for Canada.
“Canadians need to understand that it’s a lot of people who have helped us out a lot in our time of need,” he said.
One applicant, who has been waiting in Islamabad since October 2021 to find out if he and his family will be accepted, told CBC News that the government’s process is inefficient.
“There was a better way,” said Mohammad Younus Nasimi, a former CAF military contractor who worked on the bomb detection team. “I have families who were rejected by IRCC.” [after years].
“First of all, why did you take so long to keep them, spend so much money on them and then give them away? You didn’t leave them anywhere.”
Nasimi also said subsidised shelters are less than ideal.
He said he was cornered and assaulted by a group of five guests at the hotel where he was staying in Islamabad on July 25.
He said the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a United Nations agency that works with governments around the world on migration, moved him to another hotel for his safety but did not question the other guests.
He said he was hit twice in the ear and has suffered from hearing loss ever since, but that IOM and the Canadian High Commission in Islamabad had failed to send medical personnel to examine him.
He said he moved his wife and six children elsewhere because he felt it was not safe for them to be with him.
Migrant groups threaten hunger strikes
Meanwhile, migrants who demonstrated in Islamabad last Thursday to protest against extremely slow immigration procedures said in a media statement that they might go on hunger strike if no improvement was seen soon.
“We call on the Canadian government, including the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, to urgently review our application and address the ongoing delays and denials,” the immigrants’ statement said.
“Despite receiving significant financial support from the Canadian government, our case remains unresolved. Why has Canadian taxpayers’ money been used to support us for over three years while our eligibility has been called into question?”
In a statement to CBC, IRCC said the majority of Afghans waiting in Pakistan are “in the final stages of processing.”
“Processing times vary depending on the details of each application. Processing periods may be longer if IRCC has to wait for additional information to complete background checks or medical examinations,” the ministry said.
The ministry declined to disclose the number of Afghan immigration applicants currently awaiting approval in Pakistan, citing operational security.
Approximately 53,600 Afghans have entered Canada since August 2021, the agency said.
