On Thursday, Trudeau was on-hand to welcome 163 Syrian refugees to the country as part of Canada’s accelerated entry program, the New York Times reports, which promises to accept 10,000 refugees by the end of the year. 54 percent of Canadians said they were against the government resettling Syrian refugees, while 42 percent said they support the plan. In the 1990s, Canada took in 5,000 people from Kosovo; in 1972, it flew 5,000 people from Uganda; 60,000 Vietnamese were airlifted in 1979-80.
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Canada’s Immigration and Refugees Minister John McCallum says thanky you! Trudeau earlier thanked staff and volunteers who were processing the refugees. Trudeau was seen telling refugees: “Welcome to Canada, welcome to your home”.
The newly elected prime minister have pledged to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February.
Kevork Jamkossian carries his 16-month-old daughter, Madeleine, into a hotel after arriving on the first government-arranged flight into Toronto’s Pearson Airport alongside other Syrian refugees on December 11, 2015.
Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said that the agency is working with Canadian authorities to identify vulnerable Syrians for resettlement in Canada.
“We have to show that we do want them here”. Harper’s government insisted Syrian refugees needed to be carefully vetted in case they posed a security threat.
Her brother, Housep Balyozian, said he is happy to be in a country “that has a lot of freedom, without weapons, without guns”.
At least 69 communities across Canada are preparing to welcome refugees, according to the government. The figure, announced in September, was for the U.S. fiscal year that began in October.
“This is the biggest crisis in the refugee world of our times bar none”. The hard situation for Syrian refugees continues to deteriorate, with increasing numbers living below national poverty lines.
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“Clearly we’re not far off the 1 million mark the way things are going”.
