The Canadian Government will finish its resettlement of 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February next year. Although they were supposed to be done by the end of this year, officials admitted that such a massive program could not be done in the remaining days left until the end of the year.
LA Times reports though the deadline has been moved, thousands of refugees will still be accommodated in Canada, officials said Tuesday. By December 31, they expect about 10,000 refugees will arrive in Canada and another batch of 15,000 are expected around January and February.
According to John McCallum, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, they will take all the extra time they need to do the process right even if it takes a little bit longer than anticipated. "There are a lot of moving parts here, so we are happy to take a little more time because that allows us to be more prepared", McCallum told the reporters at a news conference.
Meanwhile, the most recent survey conducted by Ipsos over the weekend shows that many Canadians do not favor the government's refugee resettlement plans. Results show that 60 percent of 1,002 respondents did not agree with the tight timeline and also raised security concerns over humanitarian concerns.
The Syrian refugees selected for resettlement in Canada will be pre-screened by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Turkish Government. The refugees are said to come from camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Further medical and security screening will be conducted by Canada immigration ad military officials before they set foot in Canada.
"Before anyone gets on a plane to come to Canada, the security screening will be fully completed, fully, overseas," Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said. "If there is any doubt about an application or an interview or any of the data, the file will simply be put aside and held for further consideration at a later time."
The cost to resettle and support Syrian refugees is estimated to be around $510 million over six years according to the Canadian government. There was a total of 3,089 refugees that arrived between January 1, 2014, and November 3 of this year.
