Justin Trudeau urged to take action on Syrian refugees

As asylum seekers continueto stream into Europe,refugee advocates in Canada are urging the incoming Liberal government to take immediate action onSyrianrefugees and other migrants.

Prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau promised during the election campaign that Canada would accept 25,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq by the end of the year.

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"We understand that achieving this vision will require substantial work over the longer term and will necessarily involve legislative change," saidthe CanadianCouncil for Refugees in an open letter toTrudeau on Monday.

"There arealso some immediate actions that your government could undertake in the short term." said the group, whichlisted nearly adozen initiativesthe new government could take to "make an enormous difference to significant numbers of people."

Now that the Liberals have won, a number of refugee advocatesare waiting to see whether Trudeau's Liberalscan make good on one of its most ambitious election pledges.

"Well, it is not that realistic. In the sense, I don't think they can do 25,000by the end of the year," saidPeter Showler, theformer chair of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada and an expert in refugee law at the University of Ottawa.

Showler is hopeful Trudeau will make good on his promise. Whether that happens by Dec.31is less important, he saidin an interview with CBC News on Monday.

"As long as it happens by the end of January or February, the important thing is that they're getting underway."

NaomiAlboim, the former deputy minister of immigration for the province of Ontario, said the timeline the Liberals set for themselves istoo tight.

"I think the number is a really good number, I think the time frame is an arbitrary one. I'd much rather see this done well, than done to meet an arbitrary timeline," said Alboim during an interview with CBC News Network's Power & Politics.

"I think we just have a few weeks before the end of December, and I think that's probably too little time to bring in 25,000 refugees," she told host Rosemary Barton.

Refugee resettlement promise

9 years ago

Duration 7:36

Former Ontario Deputy Minister of Immigration, Naomi Alboim, discusses the Liberal promise to bring 25,000 refugees to Canada by the end of the year

Open letter to Trudeau

Groups that work with refugees say that to bring in 25,000Syrians quickly, the government would likely have to charter aircraft and perhaps even open up military bases to house newcomers, as Canada did during the Kosovo crisis in 1999.

To alleviate the strain, theCanadian Council for Refugees said in its open letter to Trudeau,the government could target individuals who already have family in Canada.

"We know that there are many Canadians of Syrian origin who are in a state of great anguish because they have family members who are calling them and telling them about the desperate situations they're in," saidJanetDench,the group's executive director, in an interview with CBC News.

In a statement, the Syrian Canadian Council (SCC)encouraged the incoming government to admit moreSyrians with family already in Canada.

"Family-linked admissions would also benefit vulnerable Syrians who are often internally displaced and are not eligible to private sponsorship or the government's refugee resettlement program," it wrote, echoing calls for a family reunification program like the oneoffered during the crisis in Kosovo in 1999.

The SCCalso asked the government not tocap private refugee sponsorships for Syrians.

Trudeau has said he would consider an airlift to bring Syrian refugees to Canada.

Since the election, the Liberals have said little about their plans, though federal and provincial officials are scheduled to speak tomorrow about the refugee crisis.

In an interview broadcast over the weekend, Trudeau stuck by his election pledge, saying he's told officials to get cracking onthe refugee issue right away.

On Tuesday, federal and provincial immigration officials have a regularly-scheduled meeting that providesan opportunity for each jurisdiction to updatecounterpartson efforts to alleviatethe refugee crisis.