Canada is getting ready to welcome its 10,000th Syrian refugee since November, and resettlement workers said that the substantial flood has gone easily despite housing shortages in Toronto and a capsicum spray incident in Vancouver.
'We had a tough time bringing in this flow of 10,000, but we are getting used to it,' said Ahmad Hematya, executive director of the Afghan Association of Ontario that supported more than 200 newcomers in current weeks.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals, elected in October on a guarantee to acknowledge a bigger number of refugees at a faster rate than the previous conservative government, had guaranteed to get 25,000 Syrians before the end of December but put off that timeline to March because of security screening and logistics concerns.
Based on the government's immigration site, 9,593 Syrian refugees had arrived in Canada between Nov. 4 when Trudeau was sworn into office and Jan. 11. The generally smooth arrival of the evacuees was marred on Friday when a man riding a bike unleashed capsicum spray on a group of refugees after a welcome event in Vancouver as indicated by Vancouver police.
Trudeau was quick to condemn the attack, tweeting that it doesn't reflect the warm welcome Canadians have given, and resettlement workers disregarded the occurrence as not by any means worth saying, given the overflowing of public support.
Apkar Mirakian, chair of the council supporting refugees through the Armenian Community Centre of Toronto, said the greatest test has been discovering enough housing. He said about 40 families are living at a city hotel temporarily but that sponsors and resettlement workers can usually find permanent housing within two weeks.
'The main objective is to get all these people to work and then there are the children who want to go to school now that the holidays are over,' Mirakian whose group has overseen the arrival of 700 newcomers in four weeks said.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
