immigrantscanada.com

Independent topical source of current affairs, opinion and issues, featuring stories making news in Canada from immigrants, newcomers, minorities & ethnic communities' point of view and interests.

Ahmad Mazan Khabbaz and Remi Lariviere

Syria: Six-year-old Ahmad Mazan Khabbaz, a refugee from Syria, smiles as he is greeted by family friend in Toronto. "We expect to achieve our goal of welcoming 10,000 Syrian refugees to Canada this week," said spokesman Remi Lariviere in an e-mail, but he added that information online is still subject to change, according to Huffington Post Canada. In November, the Liberals said 10,000 Syrians, mostly privately sponsored, would arrive by the end of 2015, but failed to meet that target. Flight arrival data on the Immigration Department website suggests the 10,000th Syrian will arrive on one of two flights bound for Toronto on Tuesday though the department could not confirm that number. They say 25,000 Syrians in total should be here by the end of February and then a further 10,000 government-assisted Syrian refugees will come by the end of 2016. There are upwards of two hundred applications a week being submitted by private groups looking to sponsor Syrians, said Chris Friesen, the president of the Canadian Immigration Settlement Sector Alliance. Further plans unclear What unclear is how many more privately sponsored refugees will be accepted after the end of February. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.