Canada welcomes first batch of Syrian refugees

OTTAWA, CANADA

Canada welcomed 163 Syrian refugees late Thursday, taking in the first of a planned 25,000 in a matter of months and promising them a better life as they flee their country’s horrific war.

The refugees arrived just weeks after Canada’s newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country would pull its fighter jets from a US-led coalition targeting Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria.

Trudeau and several members of his Liberal government were on hand to greet the Syrians as they arrived on a troop transport plane in Toronto.

Dozens of volunteers, interpreters and immigration officials helped the Syrians through the formalities of admission and gave them blankets, snow boots and other welcome gifts.

Over the course of the day, good samaritans came to the airport to try to greet the Syrians who had set out from Beirut.

But in the end the tired travelers were admitted through a terminal that was closed to the public.

PERMANENT RESIDENTS

“Tonight they step off the plane as refugees. But they walk out of this terminal as permanent residents of Canada with social insurance numbers, with health cards and with an opportunity to become full Canadians,” Trudeau said.

The government hopes to bring in 10,000 Syrian refugees and another 15,000 by the end of February.

“We will all remember this day,” Trudeau said shortly before greeting the refugees, many of them women and children.

Syria’s grinding four-year civil war has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced four million others.

The new Liberal government, elected in October, had campaigned on a pledge to resettle 25,000 Syrians this year.

LOGISTICAL ISSUES

But it backpedaled last month, citing logistical issues and following criticism that Ottawa had been moving too fast despite security concerns heightened by the terror attacks in Paris last month.

This came as President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered his forces in Syria to take tough action against any threats.

Putin’s call for a tougher military response is also likely to cause concern among monitors who have repeatedly accused Russia of conducting an indiscriminate bombing campaign and killing civilians in Syria.

Russia has been carrying out air strikes in the war-ravaged nation at the request of President Bashar al-Assad since the end of September.