Grandfather pleads for government to reunite Afghan child with family after denying visas 

For the past year, Mohad Asef Faqiri has been trying his best to support his wife, daughter and 10-year-old grandson, Hadis Afghanfar in Toronto — as well as Hadis's parents and his two brothers abroad.

Hadis, his grandparents and other members of his family got separated from his parents at Kabul International Airport in the rush to flee Afghanistan during the Taliban takeover last summer. They managed to get to Canada while his parents and their other children fled to neighbouring Pakistan. They were hopeful they'd reunite soon after.

But with their temporary resident visas (TRV) denied by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) last month after eight months of waiting, Faqiri's not sure when the child's mother and father can get here — and he doesn't know how much longer Hadis can take being apart.

"It's difficult to deal with him sometimes. He's crying, he's screaming. He has nightmares," said Faqiri, 58.

"His parents have to be here."

The difficulty of getting Afghan refugees to Canada isn't new, but experts say it flies in the face of Canada's rapid response in helping Ukrainian refugees. About 16,000 out of the 40,300 Afghan refugees Canada promised to resettle have arrived since the government's pledge last September, in direct contrast to the 136,877 TRVs approved for Ukrainian citizens fleeing the Russian invasion between mid-March and mid-June alone. 

The denial letters provided to CBC News show the IRCC rejected their applications because it wasn't confident they would leave the country after their visas expired.

Kimia Moshiri, the Afghanfars' immigration consultant, says the family only qualified for TRV applications, and upon the IRCC's denials, she says she sent a reconsideration letter to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser asking for temporary resident permits (TRPs) instead.

That would have allowed them to at least visit Hadis on a short-term basis. However, she says the decision remained the same.

"IRCC did not consider the child's best interest in this case, nor did they treat this case special as it involves a separated Afghan family," said Moshiri in an email to CBC News.

"IRCC processed this case the same as other TRV applications; we were not expecting this."

The IRCC says it can't comment on individual cases for privacy and security reasons. But in an email to CBC News, IRCC spokesperson Rémi Larivière says while the department understands when people are disappointed by a visa refusal, it has to maintain certain immigration standards.

"When a visa officer refuses an application, it is because the applicant does not meet the requirements set out in Canada's immigration law," said Larivière.

However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has shown immigration experts that these requirements can be lowered and revised in emergency situations — in ways that always seemed out of reach in previous global emergencies, says Janet Dench, the executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees.