‘It’s painful’: An Afghan Canadian’s heart goes out to Afghan refugees − and all those left behind

MONTREAL (CityNews) ─ Community organizations and volunteers are preparing as 300 Afghan refugees are set to arrive in Quebec in the next few weeks.

But for some Afghan Montrealers, the news is bittersweet as many are still left behind in a war-torn country.

“Now, it reminds me of my childhood,” said Fahima Sultani. “It reminds me of the difficult painful time that we had to move from our country to Pakistan for our safety and security. So all that trauma is coming back to me because it’s hard, because I still have family there.

“I haven’t been able to reach my family for the past four, five days because there’s no internet. The only way I could communicate with them was through Messenger. And every time I look it’s offline.”

CityNews spoke to organizations that say 100 refugees were set to arrive in Montreal last week. Now, they’re playing the waiting game.

“Right now we’re trying to contact the government and find out when exactly they’re arriving,” said Nadia Hashimi, director of programs at Maison Afghane-Canadienne. “So we are to some extent prepared. But this isn’t an individual effort, there are so many organizations that are working. But this is an area that is not very clear for us.

“We’re still talking at this point about finding places and connecting them to local volunteers to help them find an apartment, open a bank account. At the same time we’re talking with different Afghan businesses to find places where we can collect donations for clothing, furniture and other things. And we also have gathered volunteers to help register children in schools.”

READ:

• ‘It’s death’: Former Afghan interpreter still fighting to get family to Canada
• ‘Just a nightmare’: Canadian woman worried for family in Afghanistan after cousin killed by Taliban
• B.C. woman says Canadian bureaucracy slowing down Afghan refugee resettlement

Quebec COVID-19 safety measures add to the list of complications for the new arrivals as most places now require proof of double vaccination.

“Some of these people that I have been talking to, they haven’t been vaccinated in Afghanistan and along the way it wasn’t possible to vaccinate them,” said Hashimi. “So these are the things we’re still struggling with. We don’t have much clarity from the government.

“I think that one of the important things that we can provide is the social support, the community support from Afghans and non-Afghans to make them feel warm and welcome in communities wherever they’re settled.”

For Sultani, the next few months will almost certainly be fraught with heartache and confusion as she watches the situation unfold in Afghanistan. In the meantime, her thoughts are with the newcomers who were thrust into a completely new life situation.

“Give an open heart to these refugees because they have suffered so much,” she said. “They suffered centuries of war and to just give them a hug, give them an open heart to welcome them openly. They’re also human beings, they also want to have a better quality of life.

“Nobody wants to have the stamp of being a refugee, it’s just that we’re unfortunate that we’re born in a country that doesn’t have stability. There’s no financial stability, there’s no government stability. It’s painful. It’s really painful and it’s not our fault.”