Prime Minister of Canada welcomes the first plane with Syrian refugees

Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau (left.), Welcomes family of Syrian refugees in the Toronto airport


A Canadian military plane with 163 Syrians who were refugees in Lebanon landed late at night on Thursday at the Toronto airport, Canada, the first of a series of trips that will transfer 10,000 refugees to the country before the end of the year.

The refugees were welcomed in a special area of ​​the Toronto airport by Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, who has pledged to relocate the country 25,000 refugees by the end of February next year.

Saturday is expected the arrival of a second military aircraft, the Montreal airport, which will transport more than 200 Syrian refugees.

Besides Trudeau, several ministers of his cabinet, Prime Minister of the Province of Ontario, dozens of people and volunteers received the first flight loaded with refugees, whose arrival was delayed for over an hour.

Trudeau, who thanked the volunteers for their efforts receive the first contingent of Syrian, pointed out that from the moment that refugees leaving the Toronto airport, will be legally permanent residents in the country and, in four years, may obtain Canadian citizenship.

"They leave the aircraft as refugees, but go this terminal as permanent residents in Canada," Trudeau said.

During the election campaign that ended on 19 October with the Liberal Party victory Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister made the reception of Syrian refugees in the country one of the main points of his election program.

Trudeau recalled Canada's history that during the 20th century, opened its doors to massive waves of refugees, most recently in the 1970s, when the North American country took in a few months, about 60,000 Vietnamese refugees.

The Minister of Immigration, John McCallum, described the reception of 25,000 Syrians escaping the civil war as a "national project", which has the support of tens of thousands of Canadians.

The first 10 000 Syrian refugees who come to Canada before the end of 2015 will be funded by private individuals and associations who have to gather about 30,000 Canadian dollars (US $ 21,900) per family of four people who arrive in the country .

The next 15,000 Syrians who come to Canada in January and February 2016 are government refugees.


McCallum said that in addition to the 25,000 refugees that the Canadian government has agreed to receive by the end of February 2016, the country could accept more between 10:25 thousand in the next year.