Toronto organization urging feds to do more for Syrian refugees

WATCH: Syrian community and supporters rally outside immigration office to demand action on refugee crisis

TORONTO – A Toronto organization is calling on the Canadian government to step up its assistance efforts in response to the unfolding Syrian refugee crisis.

Lifeline Syria, a group that hopes to sponsor 1,000 Syrian refugees to the Greater Toronto Area over the next two years, wants the government to cut the bureaucratic red tape on refugee recognition and develop new immigration measures to unite Syrians with their family members in Canada.

“The humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Mediterranean has captured the attention of people across Canada and around the world, with many Canadians asking what more we can do,” Lifeline Syria wrote in a media release.

READ MORE: Refugee crisis: What can you do to help?

The organization also wants federal officials to invest more resources here and abroad to quickly process refugee cases as well as matching private sponsorships by resettling a Syrian refugee for every privately sponsored one.

According to recent Citizenship and Immigration Canada numbers, 2,300 Syrian refugees have resettled in the country since 2013 – approximately 0.05 per cent of the more than 4 million Syrians who have fled the country’s bloody civil war.

READ MORE: Reality Check: How do Harper’s Syrian refugee numbers add up?

However, most of the Syrian refugees Canada has accepted – about 1,600 – were privately sponsored.

The Conservative government has pledged the resettlement of 10,000 Iraqi and Syrian refugees over a four-year period, if re-elected.

With a file from Nick Logan