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Canada refused to accept "visa facilitation
letters" FIFA and Canadian Senator Marilou McPhedran handed out
based on a template provided by a Canadian Department of
National Defence employee in attempts to evacuate 640 women
athletes, their coaches and others, according to court
documents.
Canada said those letters were inauthentic and that it did not
authorize anyone to issue them and asked police to investigate
their distribution.
“As FIFA, we are deeply concerned about the apparent change of
mind of the Canadian authorities not to honor the visa
facilitation letters,” reads a Sept. 21, 2021, email from FIFA
Chief Social Responsibility and Education Officer Joyce Cook to
an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada staffer.
Canada pledged to resettle at least 40,000 Afghans following the
resumption of control of Afghanistan by the Taliban Islamist
militant group in August 2021 when U.S.-led troops withdrew.
Canada says it has resettled about 30,000 so far.
The email is among newly released court documents that convey
FIFA’s role in efforts to get young Afghan athletes and those
close to them out of Afghanistan.
FIFA and the Canadian government did not immediately respond to
requests for comment about the documents.
The documents were filed in a case brought by six Afghans who
say they received letters but were later told they were invalid.
They are asking a judge to order the government to grant them
temporary resident permits.
According to court documents, on Aug. 25, 2021, a Department of
National Defence official sent a template letter to the Canadian
senator and a colleague in response to requests for forms to get
Afghans into Kabul’s airport.
"After I received the visa facilitation letters from Canada, I
chose not to follow through with evacuation by the American
government," one unidentified plaintiff said in their affidavit.
(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny, editing by Steve Scherer and
Grant McCool)
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