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    • Retired major on slow Afghan rescues: 'The bucket of blame … is bottomless'

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    A volunteer working to rescue people from the deepening crisis in Afghanistan says that while it may be tempting to point fingers, the situation on the ground is too urgent to consider that right now.

    "The bucket of blame in this whole situation is bottomless," retired Maj. Paul Carroll, who is part of a group of veterans and other volunteers supporting the evacuation process, told CTV News Channel on Saturday. "We need to focus on what we can do right now."

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to criticism of the slow pace of evacuations on Wednesday by blaming the Taliban's presence at the airport, rather than bureaucratic red tape and a complicated immigration process that some veterans and Afghan interpreters say are difficult to navigate.

    On Friday, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino announced that Canada would be attempting to streamline the processing of evacuees by not requiring passports or COVID-19 tests from Afghan passengers, instead deferring further screening to a safe third country.

    Carroll said that the airport is secure, Canadian troops are on the ground and enablers are in position to guide people through the evacuation process in accordance with the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada criteria.

    But even with those measures in place, Carroll said, forces at the airport in Kabul -- including the Taliban and other agitators -- as well as the sheer number of people trying to escape the embattled country are making the evacuation process "an absolute nightmare."

    Canadian officials have acknowledged that some qualifying Afghans have not been able to reach the airport to be evacuated, and have advised those stuck outside to keep trying until they succeed.

    These labrynthian complications, the retired major said, are going to limit the number of people who can safely reach the airport to be flown out of Afghanistan.

    "We're really focused on solving the problem," Carroll said of his group's evacuation efforts. "The after-action stuff will come later. But yes, more could have been done sooner."

    Retired Maj.-Gen. Denis Thompson told CTV News Channel on Saturday that getting to the Kabul airport from distant places can be treacherous.

    "You cannot avoid a Taliban checkpoint if you want to move from any major centre or even a village into a major centre in Afghanistan at the moment," Thompson said.

    Although the Taliban's leadership said they will "protect everyone's rights," Thompson noted that Taliban fighters on the ground are not necessarily following that guidance.

    "They are basically instituting their own form of law in many cases, pulling people out and administering summary justice on the spot," he said.

    'WORDS FAIL ME'

    Images and videos coming out of the airport in Kabul depict the escalating desperation of those trying to escape the sweep of the Taliban.

    Carroll said his fellow volunteers on the ground, some of whom are combat veterans who have seen the worst of the war, are overwhelmed by the experience.

    "This is top of the list," he said. "It was the most emotionally draining and frustrating experience any of us has ever experienced in probably hundreds of years of cumulative military experience." 

    Every single member of Carroll's network of volunteers has been bombarded with heart-wrenching pleas from Afghans fearing for their lives. Some show pictures of relatives who were killed by the Taliban in Kandahar, a violent situation Carroll said he expects to soon happen in Kabul.

    "Words fail me," he said.

    Afghans on the ground at the Kabul airport say it is a scene of escalating chaos as many scramble to get on a flight out of the country.

    Sangeen Abdul Mateen, a former Afghan interpreter who now lives in Canada, told CTV National News that his brother, who was also an Afghan interpreter, his sister-in-law and their five children are struggling to navigate the turmoil.

    After receiving a message from the Canadian government to go to the Kabul airport for a flight, Mateen said the family was not able to safely get anywhere near the gate to board a plane.

    "When you hear these gunshots and seeing people running around, I feel so sorry for the kids," Mateen said, adding that his nephew and 20-day-old niece spent so much time in the crowds and heat at the airport that they wound up in the hospital for dehydration.

    Mateen's brother sent him an audio message describing the scene.

    "They call us to the different gates, and we are continuously coming to the gates," his brother says in the recoding. "There is firing a lot, and we've got children and there is an old man with us. Please help us."

    Another former interpreter, Wahabuddin Sahaibi, told CTV National News that he applied for 10 family members to come to Canada from Afghanistan earlier this week. When speaking on his family's situation, he couldn't stop crying and said he has heard nothing from the Canadian government.

    "No emails, nothing. No phone calls," he said.

    A second transport plane evacuated 106 more Afghans from the Kabul airport on Friday and brought them to a safe third country, Canadian officials said Saturday.

    Officials say they are working to answer applications from vulnerable Afghans as quickly as possible, having received approximately 6,000 requests so far. 

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