Canada Will Only Be Accepting Syrian Refugee Women, Children, And Families To The Country — No Single Men
Canada’s widely applauded plan to continue accepting Syrian refugees has a few unexpected but pragmatic limitations. The federal government’s plan will see only women, children, and families of Syrian refugees being accepted into the country. Men travelling alone will be rejected.
The ambitious plan that the Canadian government has to take in 25,000 refugees before the end of the year will reportedly exclude unaccompanied men in an effort to alleviate security concerns. Officials have already managed to screen over 100 refugees a day in Lebanon over the last six weeks to join the program.
Canada’s government has yet to officially reveal the full details of the plan to meet the December 31 deadline and resettle all 25,000 of the refugees it decided to take in. The target goal was a commitment made during the current government’s election campaign and is one that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seems very intent on keeping.
680 News revealed that about $100 million was allotted by the Liberal platform for this year’s refugee resettlement plan and an additional $100 million is slated for the United Nations refugee agency, as they co-ordinate global resettlement efforts. However, the Canadian Press is said to have obtained a government document that shows the resettlement plan is being pegged at a cost of $1.2 billion over the next six years. These figures mean that approximately $876.7 million would be required in 2015-2016 alone. Canada’s screening of the refugees spans multiple departments, and the departments slated to receive funds are the Canada Border Services Agency, Defence, Global Affairs Canada, Immigration, Public Health, and Shared Services Canada.
Upon arrival, the Syrian women, children, and families will be initially housed in military bases that have been prepared for their arrival. There will also be prepared housing in hotels and abandoned hospitals. Reports have also noted that the Canadian government is also ensuring that none of the housing locations for the Syrian refugees will be in tents because they seek to distance Canada’s program from temporary camps. The majority of those incoming will be arriving in Toronto and Montreal. Most of the refugees will be coming from Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, and about 900 refugees are expected to arrive each day.
Report: Canada to fly in 900 Syrian refugees a day
Details:https://t.co/ZeiXyXtQRt pic.twitter.com/lYnJZ2aQwL— Jamaica Observer (@JamaicaObserver) November 21, 2015
Once they have arrived in Canada, the families, women, and children are expected to be dispersed throughout the country in about a month’s time. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees mobility rights and will also apply to the refugees when they reach Canada, and as such, concerns have been raised about trying to contain the refugees for too long a period of time. CBC News advised that many Canadians are worried the government may face potential legal problems if there are delays on dispersing the women, children, and assorted families.
The entire program potentially came under risk earlier this month after the Paris attacks. Similar to the way many United States governors began citing safety concerns for the American people and claiming improper security measures, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall began calling for a halt to the program. He stated that perhaps Canada needed to slow down their ambitious plans to take in those 25,000 Syrian refugees by year’s end because they would be rushing security checks. The plan to reject unaccompanied men does seem to be one concession towards quick screening processes since women and children are far less likely to be members of ISIS.
Canada's Going to Let Refugees Into the Country. But Only Women, Children, and Families https://t.co/zl4jRlxspp
— IJR (@TheIJR) November 23, 2015
Thus far, the government has not revealed the full scope of the plan to bring in the refugees, but it has stated that the details will be made available on Tuesday. It is expected that they will also reveal the kind of security screenings that it has been doing and whether it will just be limited to the refugee camps overseas or whether additional screenings will take place in Canada.
Last week, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale announced that Canada’s planned security protocols for bringing in the 25,000 refugees are in addition to those used by the United Nations Refugee Agency.
[Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]
