(Ottawa) Foreign aid organizations want the Canadian government to give them authorization more quickly to help the population in Afghanistan.
Aid workers can currently be prosecuted under the Criminal Code if they pay taxes or property charges to the Afghan Taliban authorities.
For the government, paying these taxes is the equivalent of financially supporting a terrorist organization.
The United States, European Union and Australia implemented exemptions as early as February 2022, approximately six months after the Taliban came to power. According to the UN, 23.7 million Afghans need humanitarian aid.
Federal elected officials have been asking the same thing for almost two years.
And in June, the Canadian Parliament passed a bill aimed at facilitating humanitarian aid. The legislative measure created exceptions for humanitarian projects aimed, among other things, at providing health or education services.
However, the Ministry of Public Security indicates that the bureaucratic process for these authorizations will not be operational until the end of the year.
Organizations are also asking the government to better specify the type of work that they will be allowed to accomplish without fear of being indicted.
The Afghan Women’s Organization wants the government to be more flexible and realize that while money can sometimes fall into the wrong hands, lives can be saved if aid starts flowing again.