Jenny Kwan, head of the party caucus for the New Democratic Party, said she is seeking urgent answers about what happened to the applications of 2,900 Afghans who helped the Canadian military.

Kwan is demanding that Immigration Minister Sean Fraser explain why the applications of Afghans, whose credentials were vetted and verified by the Canadian military to come to Canada, were not approved.

Defense Chief General Wayne Eyre told a parliamentary committee on Monday night that the Department of Defense vetted and verified the credentials of 3,100 Afghans, including interpreters, who supported the Canadian military.

But the committee learned from Eyre and Bill Matthews, Deputy Defense Minister, that only 900 of them have so far had their applications accepted to come to Canada by the Immigration Ministry.

Kwan said she plans to vigorously follow up with the ministry because the lives of Afghans who helped the Canadian forces are at risk from the Taliban.

She also plans to ask whether the immigration department has lost files of Afghan interpreters who want to come to Canada, saying the government "betrayed them."

"The Taliban are chasing the interpreters and their families, and Canada wants to issue a one-time exceptional travel document so that vulnerable Afghans do not have to apply for passports from the office run by the Taliban, which poses a risk to Afghans who helped the Canadian forces." She added, "The moment you do that, you put a red mark on your head to be targeted."