Sponsorship Group

: By Nicholas Keung Immigration reporter Thu., June 23, 2016 In January, Canadian officials matched Sarah Crawford and her sponsorship group with a Syrian family in Turkey and told them the refugees could be here in as soon as four weeks, according to Toronto Star. The group spent thousands of dollars renting a bungalow near Victoria Park Ave. and Ellesmere Rd. that sat empty for four months before the family of six finally arrived on June 1 from Istanbul. Hundreds of refugee families who have been approved for resettlement to Canada have been waiting for months for flights to Canada. Despite the long wait and wasted rent money, Crawford group, Rise Again, from Rosedale United Church, is actually one of the lucky ones. According to Canada for Refugees, a coalition of community sponsorship groups, some 2,900 refugees, or about 500 families, who have been fully approved and are ready to travel are stuck in limbo, having already waited two or three months or longer to get on a plane to Canada. Hundreds of other groups are still waiting for their families to arrive. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.