Lebanon and Canada

Canada: By the time her mission concluded last June, she was the overseer of the largest such UN operation in the world with an intake of 1.2 million Syrians, according to CTV. Lebanon, which is smaller than Vancouver Island, had a population of about four million people before the civil war next door displaced millions of Syrians. The official from Toronto began her post as representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in May 2010, catering to 10,000 Iraqis. Kelley compared Lebanon acceptance of enormous waves of people with Canada absorbing nine million refugees. "We were registering, in Lebanon over a two year period, more refugees every single week than Canada receives in a year," she said, tallying about 10,000 new arrivals weekly. "I would describe it as a very slow and steady burn." The expat had been working to mitigate the crisis since April 2011, years before a drowned Syrian toddler washed ashore a Turkish beach. Migrant relief has been announced by some countries, like Canada and the U.S., but some European countries have instead closed their borders. The photograph of little Alan Kurdi, whose family had aspired to come to British Columbia, ignited global empathy for the suffering masses. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.