BALADI NEWS
Ten members of Syria’s White Helmets and their families are still living in a refugee camp in the Jordanian desert, with their applications for asylum in Canada stalled over security concerns, nearly a year after the federal government won plaudits for leading the operation to save them, a Canadian newspaper wrote.
They were among 422 people who escaped southern Syria last July in a one-day operation that was concluded just as Bashar al-Assad’s forces, who have repeatedly targeted the White Helmets throughout the conflict, recaptured the rebel-held Daraa region.
Canadian diplomats – including Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland – heralded for helping them to escape to Jordan.
Germany and Britain have each taken in their agreed share of the 422 evacuees, and Canada resettled 117 of the Syrians last year (Ms. Freeland’s office declined to say how many refugees total Canada agreed to resettle). But 10 families – at least 42 people – remain in Azraq, an austere tent city 80 kilometers east of Amman that’s also home to more than 30,000 other Syrians.
Source: The Globe and Mail.