Identifying Syrian refugees in countries like Lebanon and Jordan isn’t overly difficult, but narrowing that huge group down to the people who qualify to come to Canada — and actually wish to do so — has proven challenging in recent weeks.
Government officials held their second update on Wednesday to keep Canadians in the loop about the refugee resettlement process. One of the elements that stood out in the briefing was the enormously high drop-out rate among Syrians who have been singled out by the United Nations’ refugee agency as possible candidates for Canadian resettlement.
On Nov. 17, the UNHCR began sending out thousands of text messages to refugees who were already registered with the agency. Some of the cellphone numbers had changed, meaning not every text may have been received.
Of the 41,050 texts sent by UNHCR to ask refugees if they were interested in resettling permanently in Canada:
- 28,560 replied, and were contacted by phone to see if they would come in for an interview to see if they qualified.
- 3,049 actually showed up to UNHCR for those interviews.
- 1,801 had been referred to Canada as of Nov. 30 for follow-up interviews with Canadian visa officers.
The steep drop-off rate is partly due to the fact that many Syrian refugees don’t qualify for some reason, or don’t want to make such a permanent move across the globe in such a short amount of time. The vast majority are hoping to move back to their homeland once the conflict is resolved, officials have said.
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As of Wednesday, there had been no reports of anyone refused primarily for security reasons.
READ MORE: Syrian refugees start arriving Dec. 10: government website
“This is an example of us being totally open on communications; the good, the bad, the ugly, the wonderful.” said Immigration Minister John McCallum in Calgary on Wednesday.
“There’s something like 4 million refugees out there. There are many to choose from. If we get some who turn us down for whatever reason we’ll just ask more … On the list of major concerns it’s not very major.”
Representatives from various government departments were on hand to answer questions in Ottawa about the current status of Canada’s plan to identify and welcome 25,000 privately sponsored and government-sponsored refugees from Syria in the coming months.
The broad outline of Canada’s plan — which has changed from the Liberal government’s initial pledge to bring in 25,000 newcomers by the end of 2015 — was given last week.
The latest figures are available here and will be updated daily. The numbers will, however, usually be about 24 hours old when they reach the website.
The latest
As of Nov. 30, there were 9,090 people whose Canadian visa applications were in progress. This represents a mix of privately and government-sponsored refugees. Most are privately sponsored.
Of the 9,090, 36 per cent were under the age of 18.
There are approximately 1,015 cases where a permanent resident visa to come to Canada has been issued, but none of these refugees have arrived yet.
Of these, 305 refugees have both a visa and a plane ticket, but have not yet arrived on commercial flights.
A total of 271 refugees have arrived on Canadian soil since Nov. 4. Of those:
- The number of government-assisted refugees was 52
- The number of refugees brought in through a mix of government and private sponsorship was 11
- The number of refugees brought in through private sponsorship was 208
The first charter flights packed with refugees, paid for by the government, are expected to land on Dec. 10.
Across Canada, 65 communities are preparing to welcome privately sponsored refugees — not including communities in Quebec. Quebec has its own process and targets for bringing in refugees.
Welcome centres have been set up in 36 communities across Canada for government-sponsored refugees. This will be the first stop for newly arrived Syrians, not their final destination.
At least 441 government employees have been deployed overseas to help with visa interviews.
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