Canada PM Trudeau says, 'Evacuation of desired numbers in Afghanistan almost impossible'

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on August 19 said that it is “almost impossible” to evacuate as many people out of Afghanistan as his government wants to. During a campaign stop in Victoria, British Columbia, Trudeau said that the evacuation process is “very difficult”. He blamed the Taliban for blocking access for Afghans wishing to leave the war-torn country and said that unless the insurgent group shift their posture significantly, it is going to be “very difficult” to get many people out. 

“We will get some, certainly, but to get many people out, as many as we’d want, is going to be almost impossible in the coming weeks,” the Canadian PM said. 

Trudeau informed that Canada is targeting to bring 20,000 refugees from Afghanistan under a special immigration programme. However, as the PM pointed out, those figures don’t appear to be attainable at this time. It is worth mentioning that Canada has said that its focus is on rescuing vulnerable Afghans, including Hindu and Sikh minorities, women, human rights activists and those from the LGBTQ community. 

During the campaign, Trudeau also announced that two Canadian planes will be taking regular flights to and from Kabul to help evacuate people from the region. Canadian troops have also arrived on the ground to help international partners with the evacuation efforts, the PM said. But he also cautioned that there are lots of hurdles hampering these efforts. 

“There are real challenges and impediments on the ground in terms of getting people out, even though there is a clear wish, obviously by Canada and by countries around the world to get as many people out to safety as possible,” Trudeau said.

“The situation on the ground is extremely complex, extremely difficult,” he added. 

The refugee crisis in Afghanistan 

Meanwhile, several other nations have been evacuating their citizens and taking Afghans as refugees on humanitarian grounds. International organisations have urged countries to act quickly for safeguarding those at risk in Afghanistan, urging them to expedite visas, provide emergency evacuation, offer resettlement and cease all deportations to Afghanistan. 

Amid the Afghanistan crisis, India and UK have joined hands to tackle the shared security threats and refugee crisis, UK's Foreign Secretary & First Secretary of State Dominic Raab informed on Thursday. In a statement on Twitter, the senior British official revealed that he had spoken to External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar and the two had discussed the situation in Afghanistan. After the interaction, it was decided that the UK and India would work together to ease the humanitarian plight of ordinary Afghans and tackle shared security threats and support refugees. 

Image: AP