Hundreds of people, some holding documents, gather near an evacuation control checkpoint on the perimeter of the Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, August, 2021.Wali Sabawoon/The Associated Press
On the fifth anniversary of the West’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan as the country fell back into Taliban hands, advocates for the Afghans who worked for NATO forces are urging countries to better plan for how locally engaged staff will be treated in similar situations in the future.
Local Staff International, together with U.S.-based AfghanEvac, also say supporting Afghans who worked alongside soldiers, diplomats and aid groups during the 20-year conflict must continue.
A report by both organizations documenting the state of resettlement programs for Afghans was published Wednesday, five years to the day that Kandahar – the centre of Canada’s military effort during the war – fell back into Taliban hands. Kabul, the capital, fell three days later.
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What followed was a massive scramble by the Canadian government and other Western countries to airlift tens of thousands of Afghans who’d worked for and with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and who feared for their lives under Taliban rule because of their association with the West.
While American-led forces were united in the fight against the Taliban, the approach to evacuation and resettlement programs was the opposite, said Sara De Jong, the co-chair of Local Staff International, a non-profit headquartered in Berlin.
“Every country made up their own rules and made up their own eligibility criteria for local staff, and this was especially painful for Afghans who felt that they had worked for a co-ordinated mission,” she said during a briefing Wednesday.
The report, titled The Allied Ledger, outlines guidelines and principles for how countries should work with locally engaged staff. Chief among the recommendations is that planning for military, diplomatic or aid missions should include how local staff will be supported during the mission, when it ends and if there is a crisis later.
Issues that ought to be considered include time-limiting employment, much like soldiers have time-limited deployments; agreeing on language that defines a person’s connections to a foreign country, organization or mission; and ensuring proper records are kept in case they are needed for immigration purposes in the future.
There is no official number for how many Afghans were hired by foreign militaries, governments or aid agencies during the war. Prior to the country’s collapse, approximately 800 Afghans and their families connected to Canada’s role in the fighting were resettled under earlier target immigration programs, though many were turned away.
After military evacuation flights ended in Afghanistan, resettlement efforts continued, with countries setting in motion various immigration programs. In Canada, and elsewhere, charities sprang up to facilitate flights and settlement support.
The Allied Ledger report gives a sense of the scope. Close to 180,000 Afghans were approved for entry into the United States under its special immigration measures, nearly 40,000 were cleared to enter Britain and around 45,000 were approved for resettlement in Germany, among others.
Canada ultimately resettled 63,000 Afghans, though not all had direct connections with the military effort; special programs were opened for other vulnerable populations.
The report notes that, five years on, every government program has closed its intake, frozen processing or been cancelled outright. While 178,000 Afghans have been approved to enter the U.S., for example, they have been stranded because of shifting immigration policies.
“Not only were local war allies left behind, our own military and civilian personnel suffered moral injury as a result of this unfinished mission,” the report says.
Retired Major-General Denis Thompson, who commanded NATO’s Joint Task Force Kandahar from May 2008 to February 2009, told Wednesday’s event that around 5,500 Afghans with ties to Canada still need resettlement.
In 2021, he was among former generals who urged Ottawa to help former Afghan employees. The Canadian effort happened against the backdrop of a federal election and became a campaign issue.
Mr. Thompson said public pressure at the time was crucial, but with the government now distracted by other conflicts and a trade war with the United States, getting renewed attention to the issue will be a challenge.
He called for immigration pathways for Afghans to reopen and for more financial aid to Aman Lara, a Canadian-based organization that is working to evacuate former staff.
The federal Immigration Department has said that while special immigration programs are closed, Afghans can apply through other streams. The government has also approved thousands of asylum claims for Afghans who’ve sought refugee status upon arriving in Canada.
Ms. De Jong said protecting local staff is an important value during a mission and beyond.
“If we fail to honour our duty of care now that also jeopardizes our credibility and integrity for future missions,” she said.