Government-Sponsored and Syrian Refugees

Commons committee: He says the government plans to bring in 25,000 government-sponsored refugees from Syria this year and is well on its way to that goal, according to CTV. That on top of the 25,000 brought in by the end of February in a mix of sponsorships. The minister is telling a Commons committee that the remaining two per cent should be housed by mid-June. McCallum says 17,300 of this year 25,000 government-sponsored refugees have already arrived and the remainder will be here by the end of December. McCallum says there is still a demand among Canadians to help Syrian refugees. "I'm probably the only immigration minister in the world whose major challenge is not being able to deliver enough refugees quickly enough to satisfy the amazing generosity of Canadian households, Canadian families who want to sponsor them," he said. "This is good problem to have in a sense that it underlines the welcoming nature of our people, but it still a problem." He said additional officials have been deployed into the region to help process more newcomers. He says challenges remain in the fields of language training and jobs, but resettlement efforts are proceeding. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.