6,000 more refugees are expected to arrive in Canada by the end of December 2016. Canada is doing as much as it can to sponsor and help these refugees in need. This has been depicted by the actions of John McCallum, the current immigration minister of Canada. McCallum lambasted on Kellie Leitch’s proposal of screening immigrants. McCallum called the idea Anti-Canadian and thought it to be ‘Orwellian.’ The difficulties for the syrian refugees are immense and the Canadian liberals do realise this. McCallum stated that, “It’s always a difficult process when you come from a war-torn country, you don’t speak the language, you may not have much education, it does take a certain amount of time.” The government of canada is expecting about 6000 more refugees to arrive to canada by the end of this year. The government is giving up to 12 months of financial support to these refugees to enable a smooth transition for them into Canadian economy and the way of life. For years Canada has served as a safe haven for refugees from different war torn countries such as vietnam and Syria. After the incident of Alan Kurdi being washed up on the shore, the whole world has come together to enable a more lucid process of infusing Syrian refugees and helping them through these difficult times and also in transition. There are three different ways in which Canadians can sponsor Syrian refugees. The methods have been stated below:-
  • Sponsorship Agreement Holders(SAHs): reaching out to an SAH is your best option to sponsor a refugee. These organisations, groups or individuals are well versed in filing for the sponsorship.
  • Groups of Five(G5): five or more Canadian citizens or permanent residents can collect enough funds and sponsor refugees.
  • Community Sponsors (CSs): these are organisations, companies and even associations that sponsor syrian refugees.
Syrian family links Initiative has been helping a lot of Syrian refugees bring in their whole family to live in Canada. The Canadian authorities have even reduced the number of documents required in order to make the whole process more lucid. Sponsoring refugees is not as easy as it may sound. There are a number of prerequisites that you need to fulfil in order to be a sponsor. You will need to provide the following in order to become a sponsor by providing:-
  • Cost of food
  • Clothing and other necessary goods
  • Essential utilities
  • Interpreters
  • Information to the refugees about essential services like communication, transportation and banking.
You may also be required to inform the sponsored refugee about the healthcare and social welfare programs. You should also consider referring them to a physician and dentist for healthcare requirements. To make the transition smoother, consider introducing the refugees with other people who have been living in Canada. Finding private sponsors for Syrian Refugees can be an arduous task, though Blended Visa Office Referred (BVOR) program makes it as easy as pie. This program links the refugees with private sponsors. The list of refugees is attained from United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR.) The Resettlement Assistance Program has been put in place to financially support the refugees immigrating through this program for the first six months. After this period, the private sponsor will take on the financial support responsibility from the government of canada. This new Program for refugees also includes G5 and CSs as sponsors. This will help create a pool of sponsors and will help the refugees in the short and long run. All of the above information is enough to substantiate the fact that Canada is doing as much as it can for Syrian Refugees.