Canada has been showered with accolades over how it’s welcoming in Syrians, but the government revealed today that it might not hit its already reduced target of 10,000 refugees from the ravaged country by the end of the year.
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Those factors include the weather, and refugees’ potential unwillingness to leave on very short notice, McCallum said.
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The government has promised to bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February with the first 10,000 to have landed by year end.
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Another flight-load of refugees will be leaving the Middle East on Christmas Day and arriving in Canada on December 26.
Nonetheless, he said he was “very confident” that 10,000 or more refugees will be processed as permanent residents by the end of the year and that 25,000 refugees would be in Canada before the end of February.
McCallum made the comments during a briefing with reporters in Ottawa about the government’s progress on the Syrian refugee file.
McCallum said there would be “large numbers” of flights coming into Canada in the coming days, but other than a planeload of refugees due to arrive in Montreal later on Wednesday and another to arrive in Canada the day after Christmas, he did not give specific details. “There are human and weather complications that it is impossible for me to confirm with certainty”.
McCallum added the government has the capacity to operate up to five flights a day.
In November, the Liberals amended that promise to 25,000 by the end of February, with the first 10,000 to have landed by the end of December.
Of the 1,869 Syrian refugees that have arrived in Canada since November 4, 339 are government-assisted, 1,297 are privately sponsored and 233 are part of a blended VISA program, Dawn Edlund of the ministry said at the news conference.
“It’s certainly not guaranteed”, McCallum said.
In addition, McCallum announced that an additional $15 million would be going to agencies assisting in the refugee resettlement plan.
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“If there’s bad weather, or people wanting to delay their flight, then it’s much more hard to deal with that over a period of eight days rather than a period of 60 days”, McCallum said.
