Canada considers prioritizing religious minorities in Syria refugee resettlement

Canada has been struggling to meet an earlier commitment from July 2013to resettle 1,300 Syrians by the end of this year.

Statistics tabled in the House of Commons last week showed 457 refugees hadarrivedas of mid-November.

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On Tuesday, the government updated that number to 703. KevinMenard, a spokesman for the immigration minister, wrote CBC News on Friday saying the numbers are "going up fairly quickly."

Refugee advocacy organizations in Canada have been asking the government to take in 10,000 more Syrians over the next two years, andthe UN says it is in dire need of assistance as the civil war intensifies.

Why no commitments in Geneva?

Canada, along with other Western nations, was urged to do more this week at a conference on Syrian refugees held in Geneva by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

CBC News has confirmed that the parliamentary secretary to the minister of immigration,CostasMenegakis, travelled to Geneva earlier this week.He held meetings but left without making any new commitment to theUN's refugee agency.

Sources close to the discussions say Canada is seeking to resettle only refugees from Syrias religious minorities, something that would likely be difficult for theUN's refugee agencyto accept.

The UNHCR's policy on refugees says a resettlement state determines the "size and composition" of who and how many refugees it accepts, and "therefore has full control with respect to decisions on individual cases."

"Nevertheless, UNHCR urges all states to be guided by the agencys internationally recognized criteria on eligibility, global needs and priorities," the policy says.

"To preserve the integrity of resettlement as a protection tool and durable solution for refugees most in need, it is important to ensure resettlement programmes are needsbased, nondiscriminatory and achieve successful integration outcomes."

Canada 'a world leader'

In a written reply to questions from CBC News, Menardreiterated Canadas commitment to help Syrians since the start of the crisis.

"We continue to work with internationalpartnersto ensure Canada remains a world leader in providing protection to the worlds most vulnerable populations," he said in an email.

In the email, he did notrespondto specific questions asking whether Canada is seeking to put restrictions on new Syrian refugees limiting them to religious minorities.

Last week, at a news conference urging Canada to answer the call from theUN's refugee agencywith a generous response, the secretarygeneral of Amnesty International Canada, AlexNeve,questioned Canadas commitment.

"There are many who have raised the concern that if this was not a large population of Muslim refugees, would we be seeing a different response,"Nevesaid. "I do not want to believe that that is all at the heart of why were seeing such a miserly response from Canada.But because there is no other explanation right now that hangs there."

Menegakisrejected the suggestion byNeve.

"We totally reject that comment. It is ridiculous and I am not going to dignify it by discussing it any further,"Menegakistold CBC News.

'Categorically false'

In Friday's question period, both opposition parties asked whether the religion of refugees was a factor in Canada's approval process.

Limits on Syrian refugees based on religion

10 years ago

Duration 2:40

CBC's Laura Lynch on reports that refugees admitted to Canada from war-torn Syria will be selected, in part, based on their religion

"To suggest that we are only going to focus on the one group of people is categorically false,"Menegakissaid. "We have seen countless examples in recent years of people being persecuted for their religious beliefs. We will prioritize persecuted ethnic and religious minorities those at demonstrated risk, and we will make no apologies for that."

In an interview airing Friday on CBC News Network's Power & Politics, Liberal immigration critic John McCallumsaid he wrote a letter to the ambassador of religious freedoms asking him to intervene on behalf of Syrian refugees.

"The government's decision to discriminate against refugees who practise certain religions violates basic Canadianvalues and is simply unacceptable," McCallum said in a letter to Andrew Bennett obtained by CBC News.

"I urge your office to intervene on behalf of the Syrian refugees who are being killed and terrorized because of their religion," the letter said.

The Canadian Council for Refugees said in a news release Friday it reacted with "shock"to the report.

If true, this would be outrageous, saidLolyRico, the group's president. It is completely unacceptable and in fact irresponsible to discriminate against refugees on the basis of religion."

"Refugees must be selected for resettlement according to need.

Immigration Minister Chris Alexandersaid in the summer that he expected to make an announcement about a commitment to take in further Syrian refugees in the near future.