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Canada to resettle 25,000 refugees by end of February 2016 | |||
2015-11-25 | |||
The newly elected Liberal government in Canada will resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the year and 15,000 by the end of February. The government had previously promised to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by the year's end. The Liberals committed to bringing the refugees in during the recent election campaign. CBC News had reported that the federal government will limit the resettlement to women, children and families only. As confirmed on Tuesday, those who will be considered refugees include families, women at risk, gays and lesbians and single men who are part of the LGBT community or accompanied by parents. "We want them to have a roof over their head, and the right support," said Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Minister John McCallum. "It takes a bit of time to put that all in place." "We're happy to take a little more time that originally planned to bring our new friends into the country." The refugees will be both privately sponsored and government assisted, either registered with the UN Refugee Agency or with the government of Turkey. Government officials promised "robust" health and security screenings, to be done overseas, and said military and private aircraft will assist with transportation of refugees to Canada.
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Posted by:Steve White |