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Before life as he knew it turned upside down with the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Mohammad Fahim Rahmani worked with the Canadian embassy.

Now, he's being told to pack his things,move to a Toronto shelter and apply for social assistance.

That's because, nearly a year after he set foot in Canada,the support he and his family received through the federalResettlement Assistance Programis coming to an end even as his parents' permanent residence paperwork languishin the processing queue with the federal government. The program provides up to a year of direct financial support, temporary accommodation and referrals to community-based services as needed.

"We didn't come from Afghanistan to live in shelters," Rahmani, 30, told CBCTorontooutside the Toronto hotelwhere he's currently staying.

"Everybody wants to get their documents, start their life and their own place and start their job. And the one year of opportunities I lost who's going to pay for that?"

Rahmani doesn't want to be on social assistance. He doesn't want to live in a government-funded hotel. But as long as his parents' papers are outstanding, he says their lives are on hold and that a shelter isn't an option.

His own papers have since been processed, but Rahmani says he hasn't been able to move on and find workbecause his parents don't speak English and need his help day-to-day while they await processing.In the meantime, hefears moving from the government-paid hotel to a shelter could mean falling through the cracks of a system he never should have had to navigate.

"My biggest fear is if we move, unfortunately nobody will help us after that," Rahmani said.

He's not alone.

More than a year after the federal government committed to settle 40,000 Afghan refugees in Canada, it's welcomed less than halfthat. Many still wait for theirpapers to be processed by the federal government. Until then, multiple refugees have told CBC News they have no social insurance numbers and can't get work their lives on hold.

CBCTorontospoke to two different immigration lawyers about the refugees' situation. One said as far as he knew there was no option for Afghan refugees to receive work permits while awaiting processing. Another said it was in fact possible.

To clarify the confusion, CBC Newsasked Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada multiple times about the refugees' claims. The department could not provide a response as to the question of whether the refugees could work while their paperwork was being processed.

As a housekeeping manager for the Canadian embassy in Kabul, Rahmani thought he was one of the lucky ones. He managed to evacuate with his parents and sister in tow before the Kabul airport closed, arriving in Canadaon Aug. 28, 2021.

In the time since, he's been moved from one hotel to another to a third, and back to the first.

Rahmani says he's made multiple inquiries about the status of his parents' permanent residence application, eventually learning there were concerns over his father's past involvement in the Afghan military.

That's despite being cleared to come to Canada in the first place with documents issued by the IRCC, he says.

"My family was not any terrorist. They didn't come illegally," he said.

Rahmani now fears his father could be deported right back to a country run by a group Canada deemsa terrorist organization before the government gets through its processing backlog to consider the 63-year-old's application for permanent residence.

Hikmatullah Barakzai,28, came to Canada with his brother, who was an interpreter for the Canadian army. He arrived on Oct. 10 with his young daughter and pregnant wife, who delivered their baby at the hotel where they were put up.

With his sonnow six months old, the entire family is still living in a single hotel room, now a different hotel. There's no kitchen, no park nearby andno answer as to how long their lives will remain in limbo, he says.

"I have family, I have kids. I want to work. I want to study. My wife wants to study," he said. "Everything is stopped and just waiting. But I don't know for how long."

Barakzai says he asked his government-desginated settlement service provider COSTI Immigrant Services about applying for awork permit, but was told he should simply wait for his permanent residence paperwork to go through.COSTI is a Toronto-based immigrant services agency funded by the IRCC to deliver settlement assistance, language training, job search assistance and other such services to government-assisted refugees and other eligible newcomers.

Rahmani says it was also COSTIthat told him it was time to leave the hotel.

CBC News contacted COSTI for comment, however in a statement, the agency said little more than: "There are no families at the hotel beyond a year."

All other questions were referred to the IRCC.

In an email to CBC News, IRCC spokesperson Nancy Caronsaid the department is "aware that some Afghans in Canada remain temporarily in hotels as we work to finalize their immigrationapplication status."

"For Afghans whose cases are complex, processing will take longer as we work to receive information and work through their application," the statement said, adding it "continues toraise awareness around the current housing challenges that many individuals are facing by working together with our federal and provincial counterparts."

The department did not say why refugees are limited to one year of hotel accommodation if their paperwork is still under review, or address concerns about falling through the cracks if they do as they're told and move to a shelter.

Toronto-based immigration lawyer Robert Blanshay says Canada needs to be more forthcoming about the reasons why so many Afghan refugees are still facing a bureaucratic holdup.

"It's shameful the Canadian government has dropped the ball on the resettlement procedures for these Afghan nationals," he said.

"They've made their way through the most harrowing of circumstances that one could ever imagine, only to finally arrive in Canada and sort of exhale and breathe a sigh of relief to realize that they've got a different set of struggles."

And to those who think living out of hotels might not be so bad, he says, "There's been a lot of nightmare stories."

Meanwhile, as the months pass, Barakzaiis pleading for Canada to act faster so that hislittle ones will soon be able to have a home beyond the four walls of their single hotel room.

"We lefteverything back home," he said. "We lost everything. Now we are here, waiting for your help."

"Pleasepay attention to us."

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He worked for the Canadian embassy in Afghanistan. Now, he's being told to move into a shelter - CBC.ca

New data published today (Thursday 25 August) shows the UK is fulfilling its obligations to the people of Afghanistan and remains committed to providing protection for them.

The data on the number of Afghans resettled in the UK since April 2021, shows that over 11,300 Afghans have been granted Indefinite Leave to Remain, through the bespoke visa schemes set up for them.

In addition, nearly 21,500 British Nationals and Afghans have been brought to safety prior to, during and following Operation Pitting, the biggest air evacuation since the Second World War.

The situation on the ground both in Afghanistan and in the UK remains complex, while Afghans continue to arrive in the UK and a steady stream of people are moving into settled accommodation each week.

The Home Office is working towards resettling hundreds of Afghan arrivals per month over the next three years through the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) for current and former Locally Employed Staff in Afghanistan, while the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) will welcome up to 20,000 people in need, including women and children, LGBT+, religious and ethnic minorities.

Through ACRS, the government has started receiving its first referrals from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and will bring the first arrivals to the UK as soon as possible. From next year, the government will start working with international partners and NGOs so the UK can welcome wider groups at risk. As a result, in the next year over 3,500 Afghans are expected to arrive in the UK under ACRS.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said:

The evacuation of Afghanistan was a race against time to get people out the stakes had never been higher. The UK has a well-earned reputation for extending the hand of friendship to those in need and I am incredibly proud that nearly 21,500 people have so far made it to safety in the UK thanks to a huge government effort and the determination of the British public to help during very challenging, complex and intense circumstances.

One year on, our work to help Afghans resettled in the UK has not stopped - there are still weekly flights, our resettlement schemes remain open and we will be welcoming thousands more people to our country. We are also doing everything possible to move families into homes and I urge landlords and local authorities to come forward with suitable accommodation.

The two visa schemes set up for Afghans fleeing the Taliban, ARAP and ACRS, will enable Afghans to rebuild their lives in the UK including receiving full access to public services, education and benefits, including Universal Credit, as well as the right to work as soon as they arrive here. In less than a year, almost 7,400 Afghan evacuees have been provided with permanent homes.

The government is working hard to provide accommodation for Afghans, however the data published today shows 9,667 Afghans are living across 66 bridging hotels. As a result, more than 2,000 properties are required, so families can move out of hotels and into homes.

The Home Office and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are reaching out to landlords, property developers and the wider private rented sector, including property website RightMove, to encourage further offers of homes.

In addition, the government is working directly with education bodies to turn student accommodation into long-term housing for Afghan families.

Minister for Refugees Lord Harrington said:

Finding long term housing for Afghans is a very real and complex challenge. While the number of hotels in use has reduced, we are determined to move people out of bridging accommodation as quickly as possible so Afghans can start their new lives in the UK.

We are doing everything in our power to encourage councils and landlords to come forward, while also looking at innovative solutions to source accommodation. The use of hotels is a temporary solution and is not a policy we want to pursue, but in the meantime they do provide safe, clean and secure accommodation.

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One year on: government's continuing commitment to Afghanistan - GOV.UK

Lawrence Brown| Columnist

One afternoon years ago, one of my school parents dropped by with a gift from Afghanistan.It was a yellow burqa, the traditional covering that Afghani women are being forced to wear again since their Taliban rulers returned to power a year ago.

What I was being given was the top piece of a multi-layered set of garments that stretch to the ground.Under American occupation, Afghan women in the cities might get away with a head scarf, but in the traditional countryside, Taliban or not, this was not an optional fashion statement.Wear one or die.

I wasnt sure what to do with the thing.Then every year when my geography program reached the Middle East, Id pull it out and invite volunteers to try it on.Usually, all the girls and several of the more daring boys would put it on.It would be spring by then and already hot enough that kids would emerge gasping after only a few minutes.

Burqas are claustrophobic. The view out front is reduced to an open window a little bigger than a credit card with a fabric mesh sewn across.Try to walk around and you bang into things andtrip over obstacles you cant see. To make matters worse, many of the burqas are solar-absorbent black.In blistering summer, temperatures inside the burqas soar.Women stagger, sometimes vomit.

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Back in 1999 at the Parliament of the Worlds Religions in South Africa, I met the head of the World Islamic League.We fell into a conversation as we walked through Cape Town. We were in a museum when I asked his thoughts about the Talibans mistreatment of women.This scholarly, soft-spoken man wheeled and shouted at me.

That makes meveryangry! he roared.

I backed away with my palms raised in front of me.Instantly, he put a soft hand on my forearm.

Im so sorry, he said.Im not mad at you; Im mad at them.Understand, he said, there is no sin greater than a sin committed in the name of God.

That from a descendent, if I recall, of the prophet Mohammed.

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A few years ago, our Middle School did a focus day on Malala, the brave Pakistani girl who spoke out for womens rights.Assassins boarded her bus and shot her in the head, leaving her for dead.A huge banner with her face on it was plastered across the wall where the middle schoolers met.More banners with quotes festooned the classrooms.

Let us wage a global struggle against illiteracy, povertyand terrorism, Malala said. Let us pick up our books and pens. They are our most powerful weapons.

Until Sept.11, 2001, nobody really cared what happened to girls in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.Afghani women were beaten if their shoes made a sound walking down the street.Women couldnt work, couldnt teach.The Afghani school systems fell apart. Women couldnt go outdoors without a male escort and could be shot for a second offense.One year after Americas departure, this is all coming back.

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We held the burqa as I explained this to my students.Soccer game halftimes consisted of pickup trucks driving onto the field, each holding wailing women who were dragged to the ground, shotand hauled back onto the trucks to drive away.My kids just sat.Who could possibly want to do this to women?

Thank Pakistan, who set up orphanages for Afghani boys after years of fighting the Russians, then civil war.The schools were, in fact, training camps to radicalize and train young warriors.(Taliban means studentover there.)

Orphaned, they had no mothers … no women at all, in fact.Women, they were told, are temptations put in their way by Satan to rob them of their purity.Women would have to be controlled but God was OK with their being given out as door prizes for righteous warriors.My kids just shook their heads.We had soldiers serving in Afghanistan back then.Maybe they were there to save the women.

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Trouble is, women need saving all over the world.I had a girl ask what a foreign policy would look like if womens rights were a primary objective.I suggested she write one. No one in Washington has ever really tried, and neither did she.She had an excuse, though.She was 12.

As a sort of stand-in for all the global horrors inflicted on women, I had this stupid yellow burqa.I offered extra credit if any of the kids would wear the thing for a whole class day, then write a report on what it was like.I offered for years and there were no takers. Ever.

Lawrence Brown is a columnist for the Cape Cod Times. Email him atcolumnresponse@gmail.com.

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Cape Cod opinion: A burqa, Afghanistan and the oppression of females - Cape Cod Times

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During an interview on "Fox & Friends Weekend," Saturday, mother of Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, one of the 13 U.S. service members killed in Kabul,Shana Chappell, delivered an emotional message to the Biden administration for its reckless military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

SHANA CHAPPELL: It's been a very, very rough year. They say that time heals, but the pain today is just as strong as it was the day I found out. So I'm still waiting for time to heal me. And it's affected my family very strongly, too, especially my oldest son.

Protestors hold a demonstration challenging the evacuation process from Kabul Airport. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

He actually took his life at the park by our house where he used to go with his brothers. When Kareem would come home on the weekends from Pendleton, he and his brothers would hang out, and they would go to the park, and they would swing and play at the park as if they were kids again. And across the street from that park is a permanent memorial, that's for Kareem. And he killed himself across from that.

HEROES OF KABUL: LANCE CPL. KAREEM NIKOUI BELIEVED AMERICA WAS WORTH FIGHTING FOR, FALLEN MARINE'S MOM SAYS

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Mother shares heart-wrenching details on how the US withdrawal from Afghanistan caused her to lose two sons - Fox News

It was only one year ago that the world saw Zabi Rezayee plummet to his death after clinging to the side of a United States CF-17 transport aircraft as it took off from Afghanistan. The 17-year-old and four others, including his 19-year-old brother Zaki, were trying to escape the country as the Taliban regained control. Zabis father found pieces of his son on the runway in Kabul and buried him; he did not find Zaki. Others fell on top of houses in Kabul, and one body was crushed in the landing gear and recovered in Qatar.

This happened at the peak of the chaos and desperation that swept through Afghanistan as the United States conducted a disastrous and hasty withdrawal from the country. In April 2021, Joe Biden announced all American troops would be withdrawn by September 11, blindsiding allies who had troops and foreign nationals there. On July 5, the U.S. left the strategic Bagram airfield in the middle of the night, not even telling the Afghan commander. As the U.S. withdrew, the Taliban went on the offensive.

In less than a month, the Taliban went from controlling some periphery provinces to closing in on the capital. Many of the Afghan troops, seeing they had no American support, fled to Iran. On Aug. 10, 2021, the White House said a Taliban takeover was not inevitable. Biden promised there wouldnt be a Saigon moment, when U.S. personnel were airlifted from the roof of the embassy as the enemy closed in. Only five days later, that very scenario played out in Kabul, in the same humiliating fashion as Saigon.

The U.S. troops were confined by presidential order to stay within the airport compound as thousands of American citizens and Afghans who worked closely with the Americans rushed to the airport gates to try to escape. Desperate mothers passed their infants over crowds to troops on the compound wall. Several infants died in the Concertina wire on either side of the wall.

In the final days, the U.S. shared biometric data with the Taliban, trusting them to bring Americans to the airport. On August 26, two bombs went off outside the airport in the dense crowds, killing 13 marines and 169 Afghans. In response, Biden authorized a drone strike that killed 10 innocent Afghans, mostly children. On August 30, the last U.S. transport plane left Afghanistan, leaving behind over 9,000 American citizens and $80 billion in military equipment, which the Department of Defense now claims was worth only $7 billion.

As this debacle unfolded last year, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in the October 2021 issue: This has been the worst foreign-policy disaster in the nations history. This terrible defeat was a spectacle seen by the entire worldand they were watching intently! It will mar our history, perhaps for the rest of time. One year later, Afghanistan, America and the world are suffering the disastrous ripple effects of this shameful surrender. This one event changed the world, and it was deliberately designed to do exactly that.

The nation that has suffered the most is Afghanistan. It has reverted back to barbarism and is on the verge of complete collapse. Mr. Flurry wrote that the withdrawal sent an unmistakable message to both allies and enemies worldwide: America does not keep its promises. We do not honor commitments. We cannot be trusted even to protect our own people! Now, millions of people are going to be greatly persecuted and killed. Children and women are going to be abused, raped and murdered. This is exactly what has happened.

As soon as the Taliban had control, they began beating people in the streets for violating sharia law. People were publicly executed in cricket stadiums, and bodies were hung from cranes as a warning. The worse violations have been against women. The New Statesman reported: Womens rights have sharply regressed. Contrary to the Talibans promises before the takeover, women and girls have mostly been prevented from receiving an education, just as they were during the 1990s. Forced marriages and sex slavery have returned. Women and girls, as young as 15, have been taken as war brides for Taliban fighters. In a few cases, girls as young as 1 are being sold off as future brides for men.

The Afghan economy has also collapsed. The New Statesman continued: Afghanistans economy has collapsed in the year since the takeover. International aid, which before the takeover was worth almost half of the countrys gdp [gross domestic product] and funded three quarters of public spending, has dried up. The World Bank estimates that Afghanistans gdp has dropped by between 20 and 30 percent over the past year. Currently 90 percent of Afghans live in poverty. Most live daily with critical food and basic necessity shortages, and the threat of famine is constant. Some are being forced to sell their children into slavery for money to survive.

Joe Biden promised that al Qaeda would never return, but within the last few weeks a U.S. drone strike killed the leader of al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, while he was in a safe house in Kabul. U.S. intelligence also discovered several terrorist groups building training camps in Afghanistan. Once again, the country is a terrorism hot spot.

Twenty years of U.S. influence has been washed away in a matter of months, and with it the hopes and dreams of the Afghan people.

Another deadly ripple effect is how the defeat signaled the end of the American superpower. America is not just declining, it is in the last throes of death, Mr. Flurry wrote. It is being destroyed before our eyes. Many are now in open despair. This Afghanistan disaster is the worst evidence ever of how the United States has collapsed as a superpower! It is no surprise that after this debacle the enemies of America sprung into action. Victor Davis Hanson pointed this out in How to Erode the Worlds Greatest Military:

The global aftermath was eerie. Russia in a few months thereafter invaded Ukraine. Iran proudly announced it would soon have enough fissionable material to make a nuclear weapon. North Korea resumed its provocative missile launches. China openly talked of storming Taiwan.

The common denominator was the global perception that any president and military responsible for such colossal, televised incompetence would or could neither deter enemy aggression nor protect allied interests.

Top military and government officials in Europe remarked that Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if Afghanistan had not occurred. Many nations around the world have been strategizing for decades to undermine America as the leading nation. Afghanistan was a green light for Russia, China, Iran and Germany to take the offensive and take advantage of weak leadership.

This has even impacted recruitment in the U.S. Armed Forces, as nearly every major branch faces a shortage. Afghanistan is a black stain on the prestige and reputation of the armed forces, and many Americans are choosing not to serve. It shook Americans, and the soldiers, faith in their leadership and their patriotism.

To this day, none of the leaders responsible for the debacle have been held to account. All of them still have their jobs. The only individuals to lose their jobs were those who criticized the Biden administration for its decision and implementation.

The withdrawal from Afghanistan has sparked the formation of a new world order where America is no longer the head but quickly becoming the tail.

The most important point to remember from this anniversary is why it happened. This is a truth you will only find at the Trumpet. Mr. Flurry explained the real reason this disastrous withdrawal occurred, writing: Many people say it proves Joe Bidens incompetence. But this catastrophe isnt the result of bungling and bad judgment. It is a deliberate, planned effort to destroy America. This is not mere incompetence. It is calculated destruction. It is treachery!

The bitter fruits Afghanistan, America and the world have been tasting over this past year are the fruits of treason. This destruction will be the legacy of the radical-left leadership of the United States, led by Barack Obama.

This somber anniversary is a reminder of the ultimate motive of the Biden administration, which is really Obamas third term: to undermine U.S. power abroad. These radical Communists want to blot out the name of Israel, as the Bible says in 2 Kings 14:27. They attack anything that gives America power and influence. Americas position as a superpower was given as a blessing from God, and the radical left wants to abase America on the world stage and empower its enemies. This is treason. It is the reason behind this foreign policy of destruction.

This history is important to remember. It is the fulfillment of Bible prophecy and a reminder that only the Bible can truly explain what is going on inside America and the world right now. To prove all of this, please read Mr. Flurrys newly expanded book America Under Attack.

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Afghanistan: A Legacy of Treason and Dishonor - theTrumpet.com