KANDAHAR—Sayed Shah Sharifi heard a lot of reassuring words from Canadian soldiers during the three years he served under fire, or constant threat of Taliban retaliation, as a battlefield interpreter.
Whether he was pinned down for days in an ambush, stinking of his own sweat and fear, or enduring the dagger stares of Taliban prisoners under questioning by Canadians, the reassuring promises were always the same.
“Most of them were always telling us, ‘You guys are lucky. You guys are going to Canada. The Canadian government is starting a process that will get you into Canada in a month!’ “said Sharifi, 23.
He took that as a promise. It’s one Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government hasn’t kept.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced a special visa program two years ago to reward and protect Afghan interpreters who were critical to Canada’s military and aid missions here.
Other Afghans who worked in direct support of the Canadian government in Kandahar province, as well as spouses of any who died because of it, are also eligible for visas under the special program.
Kenney said in September 2009 that he expected “a few hundred” to qualify by the time the program ends this month, as the last Canadian combat troops leave. His ministry estimated applicants would only have to wait an average six months to a year.
But almost two years later, only 60 Afghans have made it to Canada under the special visa program. More than 475 Afghans applied, ministry spokesperson Rachelle Bédard said from Ottawa.
Sharifi, and fellow interpreter Zobaidullah Zobaidi Afghan, 25, say they’ve been told to provide more evidence to Canadian authorities that their lives are at risk even though they live in the insurgents’ heartland.
Zobaidi says the Taliban pinned a “night letter” to his door on October 29 warning he would be killed if he didn’t quit. He kept working and gave the letter to his Canadian supervisor, who advised Zobaidi to change the route he took to the base, he said.
On April 28, while he was driving back to Kandahar city from a remote district on the Pakistan border, where he monitored schools built by the Canadian International Development Agency, a car rammed him from behind.
“I saw they had a pistol,” he told me. “I accelerated and tried to escape, but they followed me. As I reached a nearby police checkpoint, they slipped away.”
Zobaidi’s first visa application was rejected. He has applied again, trying to meet the Canadian government’s burden of proof that his life is in danger.
For anyone who has spent any time in Kandahar city, without the protection of blast walls, soldiers or military armour, it would be hard to believe that Zobaidi and Sharif aren’t in danger.
Every week, Taliban death squads murder several people who have worked with foreigners, the Afghan government or even loosely linked village bodies.
“Most of my friends started working up to one year after me,” Sharifi said. “But they’re in Toronto now. They’re not from Kandahar, but they’re lives are ‘in danger.’ We are from Kandahar, but our lives are not in danger?
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