Mr. Frank doesn’t hesitate when asked what will happen if he is sent back to Afghanistan.
“I’ll die. Maybe they will kill me. That’s it,” he told CBC News over the phone from the U.S.
Mr. Frank worked at NATO’s Kandahar Airfield for more than a decade. The Taliban government that took control of Afghanistan in 2021 believes he’s a traitor who should be punished.
“Of course the Taliban didn’t like it but I wanted to help [NATO’s International Stabilization and Assistance Force] because I wanted to bring democracy to my country. I wanted to make my country better,” he said.
Mr. Frank is not his real name. CBC isn’t revealing his identity to protect his safety.
He applied to come to Canada in 2021 and 2022 but Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) won’t confirm if it’s working to bring him in.
This spring, Mr. Frank is in New York.
He’s doing everything he can, including talking to CBC News, to get to Canada but he’s in a precarious position. He has no U.S. visa and fears U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will scoop him and his family up and send them back to the country they fled.
Tim Gushue, a retired Canadian major who worked with Mr. Frank in Afghanistan, is calling on Canada to keep its promise.
“Leave no one behind,” he said.
“Those who serve with you, they’re your brothers in arms. And we have a duty to them. That’s what keeps me going.”
Gushue served in Afghanistan in 2011. He went to boot camp in his early 50s because he believed in what Canada was doing in Afghanistan.
“I wanted to serve,” he said.
He’s certain the ISAF mission improved the lives of men and women there, adding Mr. Frank and his family are proof NATO forces were making Afghanistan a better place — a place where Mr. Frank and his sons and daughters could flourish.
“Mr. Frank had five children. Three of his daughters had good educations,” he said.
“They never would have had those opportunities under the previous government and certainly not under the current Taliban government. Two became medical doctors, one is a lawyer. People do question ‘why did Canada get involved in this?’ And I think that’s part of the answer. I think that’s a big part of the answer.”
Retired major calls on Ottawa to keep promise of bringing Afghan man to safety in N.L.
Gushue lived and worked at the Kandahar Airfield alongside more than 30,000 people from more than 50 countries. It was a big, frequently hit, target for those opposed to NATO’s presence in the country. Gushue learned that quickly.
“I arrived in January 2011, as our plane was coming in, the airfield came under attack and we were hustled into a bunker,” he said.
“Fourteen people at Kandahar Airfield were killed in that attack and those attacks were almost a daily occurrence.”
He says the risks to Afghans like Mr. Frank, who travelled back and forth 30 kilometres from Kandahar Airfield to Kandahar City, was great too.
“In many Afghan minds, the people supporting the NATO operation were traitors and occasionally they would suffer the consequences of having assisted the NATO forces, the ISAF mission,” said Gushue.
“They were brave people. They knew what they were facing. They were exceedingly brave, but they believed in a better Afghanistan.”
When NATO forces left Afghanistan in 2021 and the Taliban took control of the country, the lives of Mr. Frank and his family changed dramatically. He was forced to go into hiding.
“I lost everything. I lost my business. The Taliban was coming to my house. I went to Kabul,” he said during a phone call with CBC.
Mr. Frank and his family hid with relatives in Kabul but the Taliban continued to look for him and visited the house where he was staying many times, he said.
“Too much depression. Many problems. It was hard because we had a small baby with us, my son and daughter,” he said.
One of Mr. Frank’s daughters, Nabila, also spoke with CBC.
Before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, Nabila trained to become a physician.
“I was at hospital and they were fighting outside. Bombs blasting. We were scared and we hid in an operating room, under the operating table,” she said.
Nabila says that later she learned that she was a Taliban target herself.
“I graduated from medical school and I worked as a gynecologist in Kandahar province. I worked with an organization that provided education for women and worked for their rights. I received letters from the Taliban saying they would kill me because I worked with foreigners,” she said.
Nabila said life under the Taliban was chaotic for the Frank family.
“We went into hiding and at that time I was pregnant. It was a difficult time. I gave birth at home and my father hid at his sister’s house for several months. My mother and siblings went to Pakistan to hide themselves. It was difficult, traumatic,” she said.
Nabila fled to the U.K. after successfully applying for a student visa there. When the Taliban learned she had left the country, it froze her bank account in Afghanistan.
After years of evading the Taliban, Mr. Frank and his family made their way to Pakistan, hoping to convince Canadian officials to help them. Even though Mr. Frank applied to come to Canada before 2021, he was unsuccessful with IRCC.
The U.S., however, agreed to give him probation, which allowed him and his family to live there for two years.
This spring, Mr. Frank and family travelled to the Canadian border hoping to immigrate there but they were turned back to the U.S.
“That was a very big trauma. My mother is anxious and depressed,” said Nabila.
“She is not a criminal. My father is not a criminal. My father has documents proving that he worked in Kandahar with Canadians.”
Mr. Frank’s two-year probation period in the U.S. expired in late April.
Nabila says her parents are now living in fear ICE will find them and send them back to Afghanistan.
“It’s a very, very dangerous situation. If my father is deported to Afghanistan, the Taliban will kill him. My parents are really scared of that,” she said.
“I really miss them. I haven’t seen them in two years. They are in a very bad situation.”
In July 2021, Canada promised to bring 40,000 Afghan nationals, like Mr. Frank, through the Special Immigration Measures Program for Afghans who assisted the Government of Canada.
Between August 2021 and November 2024, more than 55,000 Afghans were welcomed into Canada through all immigration streams but Ottawa hasn’t helped Mr. Frank yet.
The federal government says it’s not accepting any more applications for special measures but “will continue to process the existing applications we’ve received through all the special programs for Afghans on a priority basis.”
Nabila says the Frank family feels that, so far, Canada has failed them.
“We had hoped that the Canadian government would help us. They promised those people who worked with Canada wouldn’t be left behind but unfortunately, they didn’t help us or support us.” she said.
“They did leave us behind. We didn’t receive any help from them.”
Nabila says her family still dreams of moving to Canada, specifically Newfoundland and Labrador.
“We are very thankful to Uncle Tim [Gushue]. My father’s goal is to go to Newfoundland. My family hopes to go there too. I’d like to work there as a doctor,” she said.
Gushue says he can’t understand why Canada hasn’t taken Mr. Frank and his family in yet.
“I’ve been involved in a dozen or more cases of bringing Afghan residents to Canada. Some, like this one, had technical issues. There’s no question of entitlement. The Frank family are clearly under the intention of the program. My specialty at law school was mediation negotiation. So, I’m not being adversarial, but clearly there was some system errors made at IRCC,” he said.
“Mr. Frank won’t be able to stay in the U.S. indefinitely. ICE will eventually apprehend him. This is not how we should reward people who saved Canadian lives at risk to their own. This is not the Canada that I think all of us aspire to be part of.”
When Mr. Frank submitted his online application to come to Canada, he took a screen grab of the final page.
But when contacted by CBC News, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said it can’t comment on Mr. Frank’s case.
“Given that Afghans are part of a vulnerable population, and to protect the privacy and security of the individuals concerned, even with consent forms, we are not able to disclose or provide information on individual cases,” wrote IRCC official Taous Ait.
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