Canada's Syrian refugee plan sets example for world: defence minister

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says he hopes Canada's  plan for bringing in 10,000 refugees by the end of the year sets an example for the world. 

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The federal government has committed to welcoming 25,000 Syrian refugees in the coming months. About 500 Canadian officials were sent to Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey in November to screen refugees for Canadian resettlement. 

Sajjan, MP for Vancouver South, joined Rick Cluff on CBC Radio One's The Early Edition to talk about the government's refugee plan and his experience visiting Jordan's refugee camps.

There are only 20 more days left to meet your target of 10,000 people by Dec. 31. That means bringing in at least 500 people a day over the next three weeks. How will you do that?

There is a plan in place, all departments including my own, with [Immigration] Minister [John] McCallum have been working very hard to create a plan. We're ready for other contingencies if we need to adjust. The plan is making sure early on we had it right; making sure we had the right people for the processing, which included the proper security screening and medical that was going to be done in the country that they're coming from. Then, the next piece was to make sure we had the right transportation to get them here. A lot of it is going to be by charter because it's much easier that way. The national defence is also providing aircraft to supplement that as well.

Most of refugees that have landed are privately sponsored. Where are the government-sponsored refugees?

What we wanted to do is making sure the families that are ready to come, is get them here as soon as possible. That's what the privately sponsored refugees — yesterday, we had one family that I met, they were husband and wife, are doctors. They had three daughters and they were talking about how their clinic was bombed. Imagine what they're going to do for Canada now.

Canada has set up refugee processing centres in both Beirut [Lebanon] and Amman, Jordan. Thousands are being screened in a short amount of time. Should Canadians feel confident in the security screening process?

Absolutely. This is where Minister [of Public Safety Ralph] Goodale with the RCMP, CSIS, border screening agencies, they've done a phenomenal job to making sure we had a robust system in place with the biometrics, the interviewing — and they have the experience to do so. We have close to 200,000 people coming and being checked every single day at our borders. So we have the right experience and the tools to make sure that the right security precautions are taken.

The government decided to exclude single men. If your security screening process is so robust why discriminate against one group?

It's not that they're being excluded. They would require additional screening. [That's] what's been being put aside to making sure that they bring the most vulnerable as quickly as possible. We want to get the families in as quickly as possible, but those files will be worked on as well.

How confident are you that local communities have the resources to meet the needs of these refugees coming to Canada?

I think the response across Canada has been absolutely phenomenal and quite humbling. But it also goes to show that Canadians are very generous and have a far wider global thinking and global reach.  

When Minister McCallum was talking to the provinces, the number was actually far greater in terms of what we could have taken in. And more organizations are actually now contributing as well. So I'm confident when it comes to the reintegration and accepting, we're going be able to meet those needs quite easily.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Nelson sponsored a Syrian family of four and complained the government gave them no notice on when the family would be arriving. What's in place to ensure private sponsors on the ground are kept in the loop?

The speed at the way the process has gone, and connecting them to their private sponsor families, we want to make sure is more efficient so those families who are going out of their way, that they do have more notice and we'll be working through those to make sure they are given more notice.

You recently visited a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan. What's it like on the ground there right now?

One refugee camp that we were at, you could see, with the people there they're trying to make the best of their life. A lot of them would love to be able to go back home in Syria because they had land, they had a life. But they also realize the challenges. They may not get it back given the civil war that is going on.

But regardless you saw this sense of hope and how people with different skills coming together in a community, working together and creating a little bit of normality, whether it's electricians helping with the setup for the camps, or doctors who are not accredited in the country, are still helping UNHCR medics to be able to provide support to their own people. That's what you're going to see here. Not just people who are coming who need help, they're going to be great contributing members to our Canadian society.

Countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq are on the front lines of the refugee crisis. What support is Canada giving to these countries that will continue to struggle with supporting thousands of refugees?

We have announced our funding and support for the UNHCR to help other nations with that level of complexity that they are facing. We realize that even with the 25,000 that we're taking in now, we are prepared to do more. We're also hoping that our example sets a tone for the rest of the world, to say, not only can we do this, it's the right thing to do — we can do it in a safe manner. But more importantly, they're going to be citizens of our country and they will contribute.

This interview has been edited and condensed. To listen to the full audio, click the link labelled: Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan on Canada's Syrian refugee plan.