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KABUL: The government of Canada has announced it would offer refugee status to 20,000 Afghans as an escalating violence threatens the lives of millions of people in the war-hit country.
The announcement has clarified the program would cover those Afghans who are facing Taliban threats.
It was announced by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on his Facebook page on Saturday.
It includes women, government servants, minorities and reporters, according to Prime Minister Trudeau.
The refugee offer comes amid an escalating violence in Afghanistan, with Taliban insurgents making lightning advance and taking control of 20 of 34 provincial capitals including the economically important cities of Kunduz, Herat and Kandahar within just a week.
“The situation in Afghanistan is worse and we cannot remain careless,” said Canadian minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, Marco Mendicino.
Thousands of Afghanistan facing Taliban’s threat, have already fled to the neighboring countries.
Meanwhile, Canada has decided to send some Special Forces to Afghanistan to evacuate its diplomats serving in the Canadian embassy.
Canadian forces were deployed in Kabul as well as the provinces of Kandahar and Uruzgan under the NATO umbrella in the past 20 years of thee so-called ‘war on terror’.
