TORONTO – The government of Canada has stopped funding temporary accommodations for Afghans residing in Pakistan at the moment.
The government of Canada was funding Afghans who have been waiting in Pakistan as their asylum applications are under process by Toronto.
In this regard, the government has spent nearly $43 million on sheltering the Afghans since 2022; however, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has stopped subsidizing temporary accommodations for Afghans applying through a special immigration program.
The Afghans in question are the ones who worked for the Canadian government or armed forces and they were promised special measures to help them relocate to Canada; the federal government had announced such measures in 2021 after the Taliban assumed power.
The Canadian government started funding the Afghans under the Afghan Resettlement Initiative as a temporary measure, Radio Canada reported.
The latest development in this regard is that IRCC has confirmed that it will keep paying shelter costs for Afghans already in the processing pipeline, adding that anyone who started an application after June 30 will not have access to subsidized accommodation unless they are in an emergency or are vulnerable.
Regarding the waiting times, some Afghans have been in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital city, since as early as 2021, waiting for the Canadian government to decide their fate.
On the other hand, IRCC claims that cases of most Afghans waiting in Pakistan are in the final stages of processing, adding that processing times vary depending on the details of each application.
The department has also refused to share the number of Afghan migrant applicants currently in Pakistan in the backdrop of operational security; however, it said roughly 53,600 Afghans have left for Canada since 2021.
