Local Afghan-Canadians with families hunkered down in Afghanistan are scrambling to ensure their loved ones are safe as the Taliban take over.
The Afghan Association of Waterloo Region president Wasai Rahimi outlined the situation unfolding in Afghanistan in an email that read:
“I am currently in Afghanistan, I am trying to help my staff who worked with us in the past and now they are stuck here in Kabul. I approached the Canadian embassy in Kabul for help, the embassy is closed and there is no help. The situation is getting worse in Afghanistan and I am getting helpless and hopeless.”
No further communication on the situation was received from Rahimi,
Desperately trying to make sense of the situation, Guelphite Shafiequllah Gohozar has been in constant contact with his family in Afghanistan whom he said are terrified, however, the entire situation leaves him with a twinge of guilt.
“It’s actually very hard and it is kind of sad. We kind of get privileged living here, but we also understand and know how it is to live there. It’s kind of a guilty feeling,” said Gohozar.
Moving from Afghanistan to Canada when he was around eight-years-old, Gohozar and his family have integrated into the local restaurant industry with the opening of Royal Cuisine earlier this year.
“There are a lot of Afghan families here who try to help out, they all call their families and they all lived there and experienced how hard it is to live there,” said Gohozar.
The government of Canada announced the resettlement of up to 20,000 vulnerable Afghan nationals and their families to Canada.
But when it comes to the resettlement program, Gohozar said the policies implemented do help some Afghan’s, but they do not provide much reassurance to his family members who are stuck in Afghanistan and are unable to leave and claim refugee status.
“Even if you do apply for immigration, they can’t qualify because they are not refugees, but they are refugees inside their own country. But also, the passport and banking is all shut down, so what can I do.”
Citing their family-run restaurant, Gohozar said in a perfect scenario they would be able to fly their family members into Guelph to live with them and have them working at the restaurant the next day.
Despite the unclarity about the situation, Gohozar said he does not fault the Canadian government for its decision, rather he is just worried for his family and the uncertainty they face.
The Gohozar family is just one example of a family in Ontario that has loved ones still in Afghanistan.
With some media outlets still operational in Afghanistan, and with today’s global media, Afghan-Canadians can receive information and constant updates on the situation.
Akbar Bayat, vice president of the Afghan Association of Ontario, said the situation remains completely unknown at this moment, but the paparazzi-type information that can be found on Facebook can prove invaluable, but official information from the Afghan embassy in Ottawa is where the group is turning to at this moment.
“Right now in Canada, probably all over Canada from east to west, we probably have more than 150,000 Afghans in Canada in different provinces, especially in Ontario about 80,000 Afghans living from Ottawa to Windsor – there are lots of Afghans living in different cities in this province,” said Bayat.
On Aug. 27, a group called Afghans of Guelph will be holding a demonstration outside City Hall, during which they say they want to share their Afghan voices and march as a collective.
A post from the group said: “We are all grieving. These have been extremely difficult times, but as a community, we are strong. We must stand together to amplify the voices of our millions of brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. We must stand to give them courage and to bring awareness to the international community."
