Afghan Refugees in Canada

[Admin]

FROM RUSSIA TO A SAFE HAVEN - CANADA


O Allah! Le plus clément,
Le plus misericordieux
Le seigneur du jugement dernier,
Votre lumière nous eclaire
Nous permet de voir
Le bon coté des choses

It is a great joy to read poetry from the heart written in perfect French by Barin Habibi, a 12-year old Afghan girl residing in Sherbrooke, Quebec (Ismaili Canada, July 1999). Many Afghan refugee children, who did not know a word of English or French when they arrived in Canada to seek safe haven, are today excelling in education and aspiring for a bright future. This is but one aspect of the difference FOCUS Canada has made by sponsoring Afghan Ismaili refugees from a number of countries where they have sought asylum to save their lives from the longest and most savage war in the history of their homeland - Afghanistan.

In June of 1996 FOCUS signed a Memorandum of Mutual Understanding (MOU) with the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Ministry of the Interior. Under this agreement FOCUS undertook to provide humanitarian assistance to the Afghan Ismaili Refugees to facilitate their migration to Canada for resettlement and to the Tajik Ismaili Forced Migrants to improve the quality of their lives in the Russian Federation. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, civil war broke out in 1991/92 in Tajikistan, one of the former Soviet republics. A number of Tajik Ismailis were forced to leave Tajikistan during the civil war because of their political affiliation and involvement in the affairs of the country in their bid to make Tajikistan a more progressive and democratic State. The lives of these Tajik Ismailis would be in danger if they returned to Tajikistan. Tajikistan has joined the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) for political alliance with the Russian Federation. Tajik Ismailis, as citizens of the CIS, are free to visit Russia but can not live and work in the Russian Federation. Being unable to work and earn a living, Tajik Ismailis are suffering survival hardships. FOCUS has offered to provide them humanitarian aid within the framework of the MOU consisting of housing, food, medical care, teaching English and providing vocational and business training.

Majority of the Afghan Ismaili refugees had arrived in Russia, Ukraine and the CIS countries by crossing the Pyandj river into Badakhshan, Tajikistan and Tarmez in Uzbekistan and making their way from there to Moscow. Some Afghan Ismaili students were studying in the Russian Universities and colleges on scholarships from the former Government of Afghanistan. They were unable to return to their war-torn country. A few of them had also married their Russian classmates. All Afghan Ismaili refugees who, on December 31, 1996 were living in Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were enumerated for humanitarian assistance from FOCUS. These Afghan refugees were not permitted to work in the countries of their asylum. Their children were not accepted in public schools. Their families were not receiving health care and they were living in rundown buildings in very crowded and unhygienic conditions. There are no jamati institutions in these countries to provide them support and social services. These refugees were, therefore, suffering enormous survival hardships. Women were confined to the four walls of their residences and children were being deprived of education. Many teenage children had never been to school and their future was being compromised. Men, some of them highly qualified professionals, were working as porters or shoe salesmen in markets under harsh weather conditions and suffering humiliation and harassment from the police for working without permits.

FOCUS and Council for Canada entered into agreements with the Governments of Canada and the Province of Quebec to sponsor Afghan Ismaili refugees for settlement in Canada; the country renowned for its compassion in providing a safe haven to innocent civilian victims of armed conflicts and persecution.

The Council for Canada, sponsorship agreement holder with FOCUS, established a structure of the National and Regional Settlement Committees to provide settlement assistance to newly arriving jamats. The Settlement Committees also organized host families from the established members of the jamat to provide friendship and emotional support to ensure that the newly arrived families overcome cultural shock and successfully settle in Canada by integrating in the mainstream jamat and the Canadian society.

Rai Mohamed Manji, who was involved in the refugee settlement endeavors of the National Settlement Committee, had at that time retired from the position of Provincial Registrar of the Assessment Review Board, a quasi-judicial administrative tribunal under the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General. He offered his voluntary services to FOCUS Canada and in March 1997 was posted to Moscow as Senior Program Officer and Manager of the FOCUS Representative Office. Raibanu Yasmin Manji took an early retirement from the Bank of Nova Scotia’s ChargEx Center to join her husband and help in the humanitarian work of FOCUS Canada in Russia and Central Asia.

“All adult Afghan Ismaili Refugees were contacted and their immigration applications were prepared and submitted to the Canadian Embassies in Moscow and Kiev (Ukraine). This included a lot of travelling within Russia and CIS countries and working long hours,” says Mohamed Manji. “I enjoyed every minute of working with my Afghan brothers and sisters. Some of the horror stories of the atrocities, which I heard from them, were heart breaking but greatly enforced my determination to work as hard as I could for them. I hope to write a chronicle of these incidents some day. But one incident I will never forget. When preparing an application for a young Afghan sister and her infant son, I asked her where her husband was as he would be the principal applicant. To my surprise, she started crying and in a very agonizing voice told me that her husband was shot by Taliban militia in front of her eyes. After suffering a lot of hardships and travelling long distance, mostly on foot and carrying her child, this young widow had reached Dushanbe. Their food en-route: days old dry Nan and water. Hearing this my heart missed a beat, tears filled my eyes.”

“I am very much impressed by the spirit of voluntary service in the Afghan Ismaili youth,” says Mohamed Manji with delight. “A number of young boys and girls who were fluent in English helped me in preparing immigration applications and assembling them with all supporting documents for submission to the Canadian Embassies. They also helped in teaching men, women and children English and French when FOCUS started language classes for Afghan refugees in Moscow. Some of them helped me as interpreters to explain immigration interview process to groups of Afghan refugees and providing them orientation on life in Canada. I highly value this support from my young Afghan brothers and sisters.”

“I must confess that the success of FOCUS Canada’s program for refugees in Russia is attributable mainly to the compassionate consideration given by the Officers of the Canadian and Quebec Immigration”, says Mohamed Manji. “Immigration Officers in Moscow worked on Saturdays and other holidays to interview groups of our Afghan refugees. A Canadian Immigration Officer traveled to Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Dushanbe (Tajikistan) to interview our refugees. The conditions in Dushanbe at that time were not very safe. The city was under curfew from dusk to dawn. We could hear bullets ringing on the outskirts of the city of Dushanbe while the Immigration Officer was conducting interviews of our refugees,” adds Mohamed Manji, with a deep sense of gratitude. “As a result of the compassionate consideration given by Immigration Officers, 97% of the Afghan Ismaili refugees whose applications were submitted were accepted for admission to Canada.” Those refused were the Afghan Ismailis married to Russian, Tajik and Ukrainian spouses who were no longer considered to be refugees. They may be able to obtain citizenship of the countries of their residence by virtue of their marriage to local citizens.

Arrangements were made with the Medical Officers of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Moscow for the medical examinations of our refugees in accordance with the requirements of the Canadian Immigration laws. “I am greatly indebted to the Medical Officers of the IOM Moscow for the expeditious manner in which they conducted the medical examinations of our refugees,” says Mohamed Manji. “A Russian Doctor from IOM Moscow traveled to Almaty and Dushanbe, rented clinics there, paid all costs and examined all our refugees. Our refugees were charged a nominal fee for this service by the IOM. The IOM offices in Moscow, Almaty, Bishkek, Dushanbe and Kiev also made travel arrangements for all our refugees and provided assistance at the Airport customs and immigration checkpoints. I have made some very good friends working with the IOM staff who have cheerfully given us an excellent service at all times,” comments Mohamed Manji. “IOM Officers and staff have gone out of their way to assist us.”

Before departing all refugees have to obtain exit visas from the Department responsible for the Registration of Foreigners (known as OVIR). Our Russian partners in the MOU extended their fullest support in ensuring that exit visas were issued promptly to our refugees in Moscow. Also cordial working relationships were established with the Consular Departments of Foreign Ministries of the other CIS countries and as a result no difficulties were experienced in obtaining exit visas for our refugees.

Prior to departure, groups of Afghan Ismaili refugees were given an orientation on life in Canada and the type of support to be provided by the jamat. These sessions often brought laughter when some of the issues were highlighted for the group’s information.

“In Canada both husband and wife will have to work and, not having experience of working in Canada, most will have to work in factories. It will be hard work. It is our custom – yours and mine – that when we men come home we read Akhbar, or watch TV and leave our wives to do all other house work. This will not be fair. We must share housework and help our wives. I have done it and you should be able to do that too. There should be no shame in cleaning the house, doing laundry, washing dishes, even changing diapers of children” – laughter invariably breaks out when I say this,” says Mohamed Manji. “But many men do take this advice seriously.”

“I enjoy giving orientation to women on family life, personal hygiene, taking care of children and maintaining family unity. Afghan women and children are very adorable. I am sure I will have many good friends when I return to Canada. All of them eager to tell me their success stories. I am looking forward to it with great anticipation”, says Yasmin Manji.

98% of the Afghan Ismaili refugees accepted for admission to Canada from Russia, Ukraine and the CIS countries have already arrived and are settling extremely well in Quebec and other provinces of Canada with the help of the jamat and jamati institutions. “I would like to pay a special tribute to the Settlement Committees in all regions of Canada for their wonderful job in settling successfully the newly arrived jamats in Canada,” says Mohamed Manji. “A number of newly arrived families have expressed their deep gratitude to the settlement committees who have extended their helping hand in their efforts to settle in a new country. They have been like angles to us, many of them have said this to me with a feeling of deep gratitude.”

Afghan Ismailis have truly found a heaven of peace in Canada.

[ajsohani_1]

Not going whole throughout this TOPIC, I will make a comment, THAT EVERY AFGHAN WILL GET SAFE HAVEN EVERY WHERE IN THIS WORLD, EXCEPT IN AFGHANISTAN, DUE TO BLESSINGS OF USA.

[Guest]

Ya Ali Madad,
I was very interested in your article as I am doing a piece on Ismaili immigration to the United Kingdom, although it focuses mainly on East African immigration it would be interesting to have a section on recent immigration trends of our brothers and sisters in Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Did you get this information from a government source or FOCUS source as i have had limited luck with both over here in England? Your help is much appreciated, thank you and YAM

Al-Karim Makhani

[Guest]

Ya Ali Madad,
I was very interested in your article as I am doing a piece on Ismaili immigration to the United Kingdom, although it focuses mainly on East African immigration it would be interesting to have a section on recent immigration trends of our brothers and sisters in Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Did you get this information from a government source or FOCUS source as i have had limited luck with both over here in England? Your help is much appreciated, thank you and YAM

Al-Karim Makhani

This is Shairoz from MS. I just want to know if you are in any way related to Late Hussain Sheriff Makhani.
Tks

[Guest]

how do you know hussain sheriff makhani?

[Guest]

yes i belive so