Canada has accepted at least 40,000 Afghan refugees who fled the Taliban takeover of their homeland since 2021, helping Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government meet its commitment, the country’s immigration minister said on Monday.
Since the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan, millions of Afghan refugees fled to neighboring countries such as Pakistan, Iran and Uzbekistan. Many refugees were also evacuated to Western countries, including Canada, according to the UNHCR, the U.N. Refugee Agency.
Canada’s Afghanistan resettlement commitment is second only to that of the United States in overall numbers, according to a Canadian government statement. Canada, which is a signatory to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, regularly resettles asylum-seekers and respects their individual right to claim asylum.
Canadian has expedited the processing of eligible applications submitted under the Afghan special measures.
“The horrors faced in Afghanistan at the hands of the Taliban are ongoing, and the impacts to the rights and freedoms of the Afghan people, specifically women and girls, knows no bounds,” Marc Miller, minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, said in a statement.
Canada passed legislation this year that removes a significant hurdle in ensuring the safe transit of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada-IRCC applicants from Afghanistan to third countries.
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