At first, Ramin Sultani did not take death threats seriously – phone calls to his home required information about his previous role as a translator for the Canadian military.
In 2011, at the age of 23, he returned home to his village near the town of Ghazni and again enjoyed being close to his family. It has been years since Sultani was on a foot patrol with Canadian forces in Kandahar, a province in southern Afghanistan.
One day a local shopkeeper told him that men with guns had come to the store to look for him.
Sultani knew exactly who they were, the Taliban, who wanted revenge on anyone who had helped the Western powers. The shopkeeper said he had told the armed men that there were too many people in the neighborhood named Ramin and he could not help them.
Sultani immediately told his father.
Ramin Sultani is sitting at his home in Scarborough, Ont. Sultani, who has worked as a translator for the Canadian Armed Forces in Afghanistan, is concerned about his family’s safety with the Taliban. (Derek Hooper / CBC)
“My father was silent for a moment. Then he said, “You’re leaving tonight, Ramin,” Sultani told CBC News at his home in Scarborough, Ont.
“My father knew these people, [that] they are very dangerous, they can harm me. “
His journey took him to Kabul and finally to Toronto.
Sultani could not take his family with him. He came to Canada through the Special Program on Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), offered at the time only to translators, not their families.
“[The immigration official] said, “Only you or, if you are married, your wife,” said Sultani, who has four brothers and two sisters. “I don’t have a wife, but I have brothers and sisters, my parents. He said, “No, you can’t bring your family.”
There is now a special immigration measure for the families of those who served in the Canadian army as translators – but because of his previous work, most of Sultani’s relatives are now hiding in Kabul and unable to escape.
“Honestly, I feel abused right now. “Because what we did, no one else could do there,” he said.
“As for the government, I feel abandoned there, our families abandoned there. We risk our lives helping the Canadian forces and see what they are doing right now.
Burn family photos to survive
In Kabul, Sultani’s family is struggling to stay out of the Taliban’s radar.
Sultani’s brother spoke to the CBC in the Afghan capital, where the Taliban are hunting for those who have worked for Western governments and their families. The CBC did not name Sultani’s brother out of concern for his safety.
The brother describes August 15, 2021 – the day the Taliban entered Kabul – as the worst day of his life. Some people in the capital have received calls from foreign governments offering to evacuate them, he said, but his own phone is silent.
“Everyone was worried about their future. Everyone was worried about their lives,” Sultani’s brother said.
The situation has not improved since then, he added.
“No one is comfortable [the Taliban]and no one is used to that situation. “
For more than six months, Sultani’s brother, mother and nephews have been relocating every week or two. They managed to escape from the Taliban, staying with relatives and friends, but Sultani’s brother is worried about the damage he is doing to his family and himself.
Everyone has trouble sleeping, he said, and his nephews can’t go to school. Before fleeing his own residence, he was forced to burn everything that connected him to his brother – service certificates, his brother’s Canadian Armed Forces uniform, valuable family photos.
“Burning a picture of my own brother is like the worst feeling,” he said.
Certificate of appreciation to Ramin Sultani for his service as a translator in the Canadian Armed Forces. Ramin’s brother was forced to burn documents like this so that the Taliban would not find them at his home in Kabul. (Derek Hooper / CBC)
Sultani’s brother said he heard from a relative in mid-March that the Taliban had searched his former home. He said his family could feel the Taliban network tightening around them; There are plenty of checkpoints in and around Kabul. Meanwhile, he said, it is impossible to securely obtain travel documents for escape to neighboring countries such as Pakistan or Tajikistan.
He said his family’s only hope of salvation was an evacuation from the Canadian government.
“Secure my life and just get us out of it,” he said.
“I want every member of my family to have a good night’s sleep, to have a normal life, as a human being must have in order to have a normal life.
Back in Canada, Sultani said he wondered why Ottawa had done more to bring families like him out of Afghanistan. He said he believed the Canadian public had taken into account what he considered a weak government response to the problem.
“These are just excuses they’re making,” he said. “Stop politics. People already know what’s going on here. Stop fooling people.”
An Afghan boy looks through a locked door while waiting his turn to receive food supplies during a humanitarian aid distribution in Kabul on Wednesday, February 16, 2022 (Hussein Mala / Associated Press)
The government says it has brought 11,165 Afghans to Canada so far through two programs – a special immigration program for Afghans who have helped the Canadian government and a humanitarian program. That figure is far below its target of 40,000 Afghan migrants.
Government officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, have repeatedly said evacuating vulnerable people from Afghanistan is extremely difficult. They blame the Taliban for the slow pace of the evacuation.
Ottawa called for talks with the Taliban
Sultani said the government should try new approaches. He said Ottawa could try to use the Taliban’s good relations with Qatar to get Afghans to fly to Doha, Qatar’s capital.
The federal government, he said, could also negotiate travel documents to allow some Afghans to enter Pakistan, where they could arrange travel to countries such as Canada.
Some Afghans came to Canada from neighboring third countries such as Pakistan, but many took risks to reach those third countries by smuggling across the border.
Inclusion in these approaches would likely mean bargaining with the Taliban, Sultani said.
Nipa Banerjee, a former Canadian diplomat who has served in Afghanistan, has written letters of reference to a number of Afghan translators who have worked for the Canadian government. She said she was not impressed by the government’s latest efforts on the dossier.
“I really feel bad. “I feel very uncomfortable that the Canadian government does not want to help them anymore,” she said.
Nipa Bunji, a professor at the University of Ottawa, says the Canadian government needs to find ways to negotiate with the Taliban. (Michael Cole / CBC)
Banerjee, now a professional at the University of Ottawa’s School of International Development, said the threat posed by families trying to flee Afghanistan was dire enough to justify government talks with the Taliban.
Banerjee said that while it is not for the official recognition of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, it is worth the effort to talk to them.
“If the Canadian government made an effort, they could get certain things,” she said.
Banerjee said the Canadian government could offer the Taliban conditional aid or easing economic sanctions in exchange for some Afghans leaving the country.
In addition, she said, the government also needs to be more open to its efforts on the issue.
“Our government is not very transparent,” she said. “They keep public policies secret.”
CBC News has requested interviews with Global Affairs Minister Melanie Jolie and Canada’s Special Envoy to Afghanistan David Sproule. The government has not provided any officials.
Ottawa sets the stage for interaction with the Taliban
In a statement, a spokesman for Global Affairs Canada said the government was working on the issue.
“Canada continues to hold discussions with allies and countries in the region to explore ways to help those who remain on the ground, as well as those who have already traveled to third countries and wish to come to Canada,” the statement said. the statement.
It added that the government did not intend to recognize the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan.
“David Sproul, Canada’s senior official for Afghanistan, is currently in Doha, coordinating with the Allies a joint international response to the Afghanistan crisis,” the statement said.
“Mr Sproul has handed over Canada’s terms of formal commitment to the Taliban regime.”
The statement said these conditions included “safe passage for Canadian citizens and Afghans leaving Afghanistan to return or settle in Canada” and “full and free access to deliver humanitarian aid to the Afghan people, as Afghanistan faces impending humanitarian crisis. “
Sultani said he did not regret serving in Canada as a translator, but his family’s experience shook his faith in parts of the Canadian government.
“We don’t trust the IRCC. We don’t trust them anymore,” he said.
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