Canada prime minister greets 163 Syrian refugees at airport
GOVERNMENT HOPES TO BRING IN 10,000 INITIALLY AND ANOTHER 15,000 BY END OF FEBRUARY
Canada welcomed 163 Syrian refugees late on Thursday, taking in the first of a planned 25,000 in a matter of months and promising them a better life as they flee their country’s horrific war.
The refugees arrived just weeks after Canada’s newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country would pull its fighter jets from a US-led coalition targeting Daesh fighters in Iraq and Syria.
Trudeau and several members of his Liberal government were on hand to greet the Syrians as they arrived on a troop transport plane in Toronto.
Dozens of volunteers, interpreters and immigration officials helped the Syrians through the formalities of admission and gave them blankets, snow boots and other welcome gifts.
Over the course of the day, well-wishers came to the airport to donate winter clothes and try to greet the Syrians who had set out from Beirut.
But in the end the tired travellers were admitted through a terminal that was closed to the public.
“Tonight they step off the plane as refugees. But they walk out of this terminal as permanent residents of Canada with social insurance numbers, with health cards and with an opportunity to become full Canadians,” Trudeau said.
The government hopes to bring in 10,000 Syrian refugees and another 15,000 by the end of February.
Syria’s four-year civil war has killed more than 250,000 and displaced four million others.
The new Liberal government, elected in October, had campaigned on a pledge to resettle 25,000 Syrians this year.
But it back-pedalled last month, citing logistical issues and following criticism that Ottawa had been moving too fast despite security concerns heightened by the terror attacks in Paris last month.
Another plane carrying around 160 Syrians is due to arrive in Montreal today, and the pace of arrivals is scheduled to increase to as many as two planes per day.