Canada aims to double intake of Syrian refugees next year

With a week left until the end of the year, a plane carrying 298 refugees on its way to Montreal will push the current total to above 2,000.

The federal government may not meet its goal of bringing 10,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by the end of the year, Immigration Minister John McCallum said Wednesday. There will be no flights landing on Christmas Day, McCallum confirmed, but some may be taking off to begin their journey to Canada.

John McCallum was in the Jordanian capital of Amman on Sunday, meeting with Syrian families preparing to board flights to Canada. Air Transat is a business unit of Transat A.T. Inc., an integrated worldwide tour operator with more than 60 destination countries and that distributes products in over 50 countries. Canada is working with the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, local governments and the International Organization for Migration to expedite the vetting process. Janet Howitt worked with her church group in Kitchener, Ontario to sponsor a Syrian family who fled the conflict in Aleppo.

In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino some American politicians still arguing over how many Syrian refugees to admit. “They all said it’s extremely ambitious, but 10,000 is plausible between now and the end of the year”, he said.

Canada’s recently elected Liberal government campaigned on a promise to accept 25,000 refugees by the end of the year.

As of December 21, 1,869 refugees had landed in Canada, with three more flights scheduled between Wednesday and New Year’s Eve. In late November, the government pushed back the deadline to resettle 25,000 to the end of February, committing instead to resettle 10,000 by January 1.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcomed some of the first arrivals earlier this month and said Canada was “showing the world how to open our hearts”. I trust that we will do the same with the thousands of people who are experiencing the Canadian holidays and the Canadian winter for the first time – the Syrian refugees.

He then turned to a different set of numbers, admitting the Liberals may not hit their promised December 31 target to resettle 10,000 people.