At their apex, the Sikhs in Afghanistan numbered over 160,000 people.
Today they number a mere 1,000, 1% of that number, and the vast majority of the people remaining want to leave.
In Kabul, Afghanistan’s Sikhs face relentless persecution. The forty families still living in their homes around Gurudwara Har Rai Sahib in Kabul’s Shore Bazaar rarely venture far from their dilapidated homes. 
Alberta MLA Manmeet Bhullar is requesting the Government of Canada to allow Afghan asylum seekers to come to Canada under the private sponsorship program.
“For three decades, extremists have made it very difficult for minorities to live in Afghanistan,” said Bhullar. “Due to intensifying religious persecution in some regions, Sikh children have been unable to attend school for over seven years. Some families can’t even leave their gurdwara. Additionally, these minorities face ongoing threats and acts of violence if they continue to practice their faith.”
Most of Kabul’s Sikhs have taken refuge inside Gurudwara Har Rai Sahib, where within its heavily shelled walls there is neither sanitation nor heat.
The gurdwara, which is over 400 years old, still functions in war-ravaged Kabul.
Prior to 1991, there were eleven active gurdwaras and three Hindu temples that existed in Kabul.
Many families and organizations within Canada have stepped up and offered their support to bring these families to Canada, noted Bhullar. However, these groups are unable to help unless the Government of Canada waives a paperwork requirement that asylum seekers can only apply from outside their own country under the private sponsorship program for refugees.
“It’s incredibly dangerous for these families to travel to other countries to apply for refugee status, where upon arrival, they would most certainly face additional persecution while waiting for Canada to approve their paperwork,” adds Bhullar. “Most of them can’t safely leave their neighbourhoods, let alone survive ethnic violence perpetrated by militant extremists along the way to Afghanistan’s direct neighbours, who are either repressive or have been unable to consistently protect minorities.”
Canada’s federal government has previously waived this requirement for refugees from countries like Sudan, Sierra Leone, Colombia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.