Canada announced on Friday it would resettle Afghan interpreters, embassy staff and their families amid a “dynamic and deteriorating” situation in Afghanistan, saying they had become targets for the Taliban.
“Canada is here to support those who supported us,” said Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino, adding that “several thousand” people would be eligible and the first arrivals would be landing in Canada very shortly.
Canada plans to relocate Afghan interpreters and others as soon as possible in light of the rapidly concluding US military drawdown and a Taliban offensive.
“We appreciate that there is a need to act quickly and decisively but that we must also do so safely given the very dynamic and deteriorating situation,” Mendicino told a televised news conference in Ottawa.
Mendicino did not give a specific number of people who would be admitted or say when exactly they would arrive.
“Many Afghan citizens put themselves at risk to assist Canada … Now they face even greater threats from the Taliban,” he said.
The situation in Afghanistan is evolving rapidly. On Friday, the United States condemned the Taliban’s targeted attacks on former interpreters and other Afghans as well as the destruction of infrastructure, calling on the Taliban to prevent their forces from carrying out the actions.
“We vehemently condemn the targeted attacks, the destruction of vital infrastructure, as well as other attacks against the people of Afghanistan,” State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter said at a regular news briefing.
President Joe Biden was to speak by telephone with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Friday, a White House spokesman said.
