TORONTO – In addition to the 25,000 refugee who arrived to Canada during the last few months, additional 10,000 Syrian refugees will be taken in, said Immigration Minister John McCallum on Thursday in Germany, where an inflow of refugees has sparked a backlash.
The latter told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp he was answering to complaints from Canadian groups who want to sponsor Syrian refugees however their applications did not get processed as rapid enough to be among the government’s initial target of 25,000.
In addition to the aforementioned and with a phone call interview with CBC News from Berlin, McCallum said in that they were doing everything they can to accommodate the very welcomed desire on the part of Canadians to sponsor refugees, noting that McCallum has a meeting with the German interior minister in Berlin.
Promising to open the doors infront of more Syrian refugees more quickly than the “previous” Conservative government, the Liberal government won election in October 2015. Which comes in severe contrast with how things are regarding this matter in Europe, where resettlement has sparked an anti-migrant backlash amid security fears.
The resettlement program has been going smoothly, although there have been some interruptions that and delay in finding permanent housing for refugees arriving in Canada, particularly in large cities like Toronto where the housing market is tight. A poll released last month showed Canadians were divided over whether to accept more Syrian refugees.
A total of 26,200 Syrian refugees had arrived in Canada as of March 28, according to the Immigration Department. But nearly 16,000 more applications are in process or have been finalized, even though the refugees have not yet arrived, according to official figures.
McCallum said he has instructed bureaucrats to extend the deadline for submitting sponsorship applications to Thursday from the initial March 1 deadline, which should allow the department to process the backlog.
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