Syrian refugee family's arrival in Halifax delayed

A privately-sponsored Syrian refugee family expected to arrive in Halifax on Thursdayhas been delayed, whilea wave of government-sponsored Syrian refugees will touch down in Toronto and disperse across the country.

A Syrianmother, father and two childrenwere expected to arrive in the province today but they'vebeen delayed and the reasons aren't clear,says the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia. It's not known when they will land.

But the familywon't bethe first privately-sponsored Syrian refugees to come to the province.

"I think there was one in September, they've been coming, dribbling in, slowly through this year but very, very, few,"said Gerry Mills, the organization's director of operations,told Information Morning."We're thrilled to be part of this work that we've been doing for so long,"

The federal government has pledged to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees into Canada, the first of whom are flying inon a military aircraft.After landing in Toronto, those refugees will continue onto36 different cities across Canada, including Halifax.

Mills expects most of the 1,500 Syrian refugeesNova Scotia has committed to bringinginwillbe settled in the provincein the next year.

108 groups formed to sponsor refugees

Numerous community groups have come forward to sponsor refugees, Mills says.

"We don't go to the grocery store without someone stopping us and saying, 'we're forming a group.' Right now we know of 108 community groups who have formed."

She says ISANS is working with some of those groups to help them through the process of sponsoring refugees. Mills saidit's a complicated system, one that can involve filling out forms 50 pages long.

"In some cases we need the refugee's story, so the refugee, wherever they are, has to write their story of why they're a refugee, how they became a refugee and that has to come back."

Most times that story isn't written in English and has to be translated before it can be put into the application package, all of which takes time, she said.

Despite all that work, Mills says the process is moving a lot faster than it used to.

"Our former world was a group formed, raised the money and two or three years later the family arrived. People don't honestly have time to be naive because they raise the money, put in the application and the families are arriving. It's really speeding up."