OTTAWA – Over 1,100 people already evacuated and the promise of “tireless” work to continue ripping people out of conflict-ravaged Afghanistan “as long as it is safe to do so”. This, in a nutshell, is what emerged from today’s press conference which saw four ministries of the Trudeau government intervene on the Afghan question. Maryam Monsef (Women), Marco Mendicino (Immigration), Harjit Sajjan (Defense) and Marc Garneau (Foreign Affairs) took stock of the situation, answering questions from journalists.

“The difficult security conditions in Kabul are changing rapidly, even by the hour, but Canadian personnel are doing everything in their power to save people,” Sajjan said.

“Canadian evacuation flights brought more than 1,100 people out of Afghanistan this month – Mendicino added – , with 12 flights starting August 4” and “40 families evacuated before the Taliban marched into Kabul have already completed their quarantine period here. A family has already grown up: a girl was born, her mother gave birth here and the baby is a Canadian citizen”.

The first flights had taken off before the Taliban arrived in Kabul. Then, since the capital was taken, three planes took off: the first last Thursday, with 175 fleeing Afghans and 13 other foreigners on board, all headed for other countries; the second Friday, with another 106 Afghans destined to settle in Canada; the third Saturday, with 121 people on board. “All the displaced Afghans were interpreters and other workers who supported Canada’s military and diplomatic efforts in the country”, ministers added at the conference.

Last week the federal government had committed to 20,000 Afghans in Canada, but Mendicino specified that “all 20,000 should arrive this year” and that in any case “Afghans should find their own way out of Afghanistan, as the Taliban control the checkpoints inside and outside the country”.

The unstable situation at Kabul airport – where 20 deaths have occurred in the last week – is making everything more difficult. “The situation on the ground is unstable, it’s precarious. And so we stay in constant contact with all the people we’re trying to help, and we’ve given full operational discretion to the military to make any calls they need to get those people on the flights. We have made some progress, but there is still a lot of work to be done”, Mendicino said.

However, the minister said the Taliban is expected to keep their word to allow people who want to leave to leave. “We have made this very clear publicly and we will continue to do so that the Taliban allow all the people who are trying to leave Afghanistan to find a safe way to do so”, he added.

Sajjan, however, recalled that the situation on the ground at Kabul airport is changing by the hour. “The situation on the pitch is extremely chaotic and difficult”. And it is precisely from the “field” that testimonies leave no room for doubt. Like that of an interpreter waiting, in Kabul, to be evacuated to Canada with his wife and three children, who reported – according to CBC – that Taliban militants knocked on his door on Friday morning asking what he does for a living. and why it is there. The interpreter – who worked with the armed forces in Kandahar – lied, replying that he works in a bakery in Kabul. He then told reporters, anonymously, that he filed his resettlement application to Canada last month and that he and his wife visited the Canadian embassy in Kabul on August 5, before the Taliban took control of the capital. But he hasn’t heard from the Canadian government since that day. He could reach Kabul airport, but he is not sure he can enter with his family due to the large crowd of people waiting outside. “It is very dangerous to be in Kabul,” he added. “Things are getting worse by the hour”.

In the pic above, clockwise from top left: the four ministries Mendicino, Sajjan, Garneau and Monsef during today’s conference