New Westminster is making plans to welcome more than a hundred Syrian refugees in the coming weeks.
John Stark, the city’s senior social planner, said the New Westminster has made “great strides” with developing settlement services in the last five years. He said the city has a really important role to play as a coordinator with the incoming refugees.
“We expect there will be 100-plus arriving in New Westminster over the next six to eight weeks, which is a really short time span,” Stark said.
The city expects to have a better sense of the Syrian refugee situation after a Nov. 26 planning meeting with other organizations.
“Right now, community members have been asked to go to Immigrant Services Society of B.C. website. On that website you can provide information as to whether you’d like to volunteer, make a donation, whether you have space available that could potentially accommodate a refugee or a refugee family,” Stark said. “They do have information there with regard to private sponsorships. It is a tremendous responsibility so there is information there to educate individuals.”
More than four million people have fled Syria and an additional eight million have been displaced within the country since the civil war began in 2011, stated a Nov. 16 staff report to city council.
The city chairs the Welcoming and Inclusive New West (WINS) Local Immigration Partnership Council, which is monitoring the situation in Syria and exploring strategies to address any future refugees from Syria and Iraq. The city is also in contact with the Immigrant Services Society of B.C., which estimates B.C. will receive between 2,500 and 2,750 refugees, with about 100 (four per cent) settling in New Westminster.
“With regard to the Kurd refugees who are coming predominantly from Syria and Iraq, private sponsorships are being encouraged,” Stark said. “At this point we are still trying to get information in regards to how much senior government assistance will be available to municipalities with regards to assisting those individuals.”
During the recent federal election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged that Canada would accept 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the year. Some have suggested that Trudeau should re-evaluate his election promise in light of the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, but he’s said the government will find a way to bring the refugees to Canada in a secure way.
“Nobody is more a victim of the terrorists than the people who are running away from them, who have lost their homes and lost members of their family,” said Coun. Jaimie McEvoy.
McEvoy said he was disappointed to hear of an arson attack on a mosque in Peterborough, Ont. last weekend.
“We are going to have thousands of people coming into our country like we always have had. The welcome and the integration and the support that people get always matters,” he said. “My answer to those who want to say that they don’t want to extend that welcome is, just be as loving and open and welcoming as you can. If we reflect the values of our country properly, we will be fine in the future.”
The City of New Westminster has developed a list of international and local organizations that are working to address the needs of Syrian refugees and posted the information on its website, www.newwestcity.ca.
