Ottawa to make announcement regarding Afghan interpreters

The federal government is expected to respond this morning to mounting calls to bring Afghan interpreters and their families to Canada.

The government has come under pressure to help interpreters and other contractors who worked for the Canadian Armed Forces during the Afghanistan war and now face retribution and possibly death from a resurgent Taliban.

Earlier this month, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said his department was working with Global Affairs and Canada's Department of National Defence to finalize "an operational plan that would create a corridor for Afghan interpreters, locally engaged staff and their families."

He, along with Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau are scheduled to make an announcement at 11 a.m. ET.

During the war, Afghan interpreters worked with Canadian troops during to connect them with local leaders, translate conversations and help build trust on the ground. Considered traitors by some in their country, translators say they live in fear of being attacked or killed. Some have received threatening phone calls and letters promising death and disfigurement to their families.

In 2009, Canada offered refuge to approximately 800 interpreters fearing for their lives Afghanistan, but the program had restrictive criteria, which meant two-thirds of the Afghans who applied for refuge were turned away, according to figures compiled by The Canadian Press.

To qualify under the old program, the advisers had to demonstrate they worked for Canadian troops, diplomats or contractors for 12 consecutive months between October 2007 and July 2011.

That excluded a lot of interpreters. Canada first deployed special forces troops to Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, followed that up with a battle group in 2002 and then launched a mission in Kabul before returning to Kandahar in 2006.

Opposition parties urge swift action

Federal NDP defence critic Randall Garrison, who worked in Afghanistan for Amnesty International before becoming a politician, has been urging the government to act swiftly.

"If you monitor the situation, you'll end up with interpreters and their families dead instead of in safety," he told CBC's The Current earlier this month.

The federal government has come under pressure to help Afghan interpreters and other contractors who worked for the Canadian Armed Forces during the Afghanistan war and now face retribution and possibly death from a resurgent Taliban. Critics say those interpreters should be quickly resettled. (Murray Brewster/The Canadian Press )

The Conservatives have also backed calls for the government to expatriate the vulnerable.

"These brave Afghans risked their lives to help our military heroes," Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole said in a statement. "And in their time of need, we are abandoning them. It's patently un-Canadian and wrong."

Canadian military involvement in Afghanistan formally ended in 2014.

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