Saturday 5 September 2015

"The roadblock is the Canadian government"

The shocking photo of 3-year old Syrian Aylan Kurdi, found lifeless on a Turkish beach a few days ago, appears to have generated more empathy for the plight of refugees, and more media interest, than any other report about migrants in previous months. Canadians are increasingly holding their government accountable for not bringing in more refugees, especially Syrian refugees, and for letting Europe deal with the growing migrant crisis on its own. The government is far from reaching its already modest goal of bringing in 10,000 Syrians over 3 years, with only about 700 arriving in Canada last year. The CBC's The Current talked to our group member Raghu about some of the frustrations sponsorship groups such as ours are facing. Following the great, in-depth interview, Raghu was bombarded with other media requests. Hopefully the attention the migrant issue is finally getting will push the Canadian government to bring in more Syrian and other refugees as soon as possible, and to make it easier for people like us to sponsor them.

Listen to Raghu's interview: http://bit.ly/1L7nEz4