By Anna Mehler Paperny
TORONTO (Reuters) – Officials with soccer’s international governing body FIFA criticized Canada’s decision not to recognize documents FIFA and a Canadian senator had given to female athletes and others who were scrambling to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban took over in 2021.
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)
