Trudeau welcomes Syrian refugees but Canada may not reach target

John McCallum was in the Jordanian capital of Amman on Sunday, meeting with Syrian families preparing to board flights to Canada.

During the election, the Liberals promised to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees into Canada by the end of the year, a higher number than both the NDP and Conservatives combined.

He says the government still expects to meet its overall goal of resettling 25,000 refugees well before the end of February.

“It’s certainly not guaranteed”, McCallum said, explaining that weather can cause cancellations and delays, and that “human nature” is also a factor. “The issue is whether all of those 10,000 Syrian refugees will have arrived in Canada will have their feet on Canadian soil by December 31”. But it pushed its deadline back to February after the deadly November attacks in Paris, saying it would bring in 10,000 by year-end.

He added the government is expecting to identify 25,000 would-be new Canadians by the end of the year. McCallum says there will be many, many more flights over the coming days.

Mr. McCallum said the government is “moving heaven and earth” to bring in as many refugees as quickly as possible, rejecting the argument that he was “playing politics with people’s lives” by making unrealistic promises to refugees. The government flights that began on December 10 were the first dedicated to resettling Syrians in the country.

President Barack Obama has pledged to take in 10,000 Syrians over the course of this fiscal year, and many American states – apparently fearing Islamist extremists will be hiding amid the refugee flow – have said they do not want them. “This reaffirms for me Canada must do its part to urgently resettle some of these Syrian refugees to Canada”. Once the plane lands, the government will have succeeded in bringing in slightly more than 2,000 refugees since November 4.

In addition, McCallum announced that an additional $15 million would be going to agencies assisting in the refugee resettlement plan.

The Canadian government have agreed to cover the cost of travel for Syrian refugees, although other refugee groups still need to pay for their travel to Canada.