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‘Welcome home,’ Syrian refugees told in Canada
December 11, 2015, 11:59 am

Trudeau was personally waiting at Toronto's Pearson Airport to greet incoming Syrian refugees [Xinhua]

Trudeau was personally waiting at Toronto’s Pearson Airport to greet incoming Syrian refugees [Xinhua]


As US media continues to debate Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s calls for barring Muslims and refugees from entering the country, Canada has essentially thrown them a red-carpet welcome.

On Thursday, more than 160 men, women and children fleeing the carnage in Syria were flown from Lebanon to Toronto aboard a Canadian Forces jet.

Air Canada has also said it would cooperate with Ottawa to transport Syrian refugees to Canada.

Thursday’s airlift is the first transport of Syrian Refugees since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal party won the October 19 election, marking a clear shift in immigration policy.

Trudeau has pledged to allow 25,000 refugees into Canada by the end of February 2016.

Hundreds of volunteers welcomed the Syrian refugees at specially designated terminal at Pearson Airport in Toronto, handing them Canadian flags and packets of toys for the children.

Many of the refugees where already processed in Canadian government immigration centers in Beirut, Lebanon and Amman, Jordan – two countries that currently host nearly two million people fleeing the civil war in Syria.

An additional one million refugees currently live in Turkey.

torontostarfull.0Trudeau greeted the first two families, giving them coats and toys, at the processing centers in the terminal.

He told them that they had now arrived home.

Trudeau also thanked the volunteers, airport staff and interpreters who dedicated long hours helping process and welcome the Syrian refugees.

“This is a wonderful night, where we get to show not just a planeload of new Canadians what Canada is all about, we get to show the world how to open our hearts and welcome in people who are fleeing extraordinarily difficult situations,” he said in remarks carried by local media.

On Thursday, Canada’s largest daily newspaper The Toronto Star published a welcome note to all refugees on its cover page.

Another plane of Syrian refugees is expected to arrive in Montreal on Friday.

The UN estimates that more than 220,000 people have died in the five-year Syrian Civil War.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies