WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st July, 2021) A Canadian military advocacy group is calling for volunteers to help efforts to relocate and integrate Afghan interpreters who are facing imminent danger amid the US withdrawal from the war-torn country.
"On behalf of the Conference of Defense Associations and the CDA Institute, I am writing to seek your support and assistance in helping to welcome and integrate Afghan refugees into our communities," Lt.-Gen Guy Thibault, former Vice Chief of the Defense Staff and President of the Conference of Defense Associations (CDA), said in statement on Tuesday.
Volunteers are needed to help prospective refugees settle into life in Canada, the statement said.
The call for help from one of Canada's largest military advocacy groups is in line with the efforts of other Canadian Afghan war veterans' communities, some of whom have undertaken direct action to help translators.
Top Canadian officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, have said that Ottawa is working to assist the interpreters, who the Taliban terror group (banned in Russia) views as traitors, and vowed that an announcement is imminent.
Last week, US Central Command said the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is more than 95 percent complete. Meanwhile, reports suggest that the Taliban movement now controls 85 percent of Afghanistan.
The evacuation of Afghan interpreters is also a hot topic in the United States, where officials have said that aides to the US mission in Afghanistan will be relocated to third countries while their special immigrant visas are processed.
The Canadian military, which was primarily active in Kandahar, exited the Afghan war in 2014.
