Syrian refugee crisis: urgent call for action

This is an urgent call for all members and staff to participate in a quick but important action.

Unifor is working with Lifeline Syria to sponsor five Syrian refugee families to come to Canada. Last week, the federal government hastily acted, giving little more than 24 hours of notice, that private sponsorship applications had to be submitted before midnight March 31 to be finalized by the end of 2016 or early 2017.  Lifeline Syria acted swiftly to complete and file 177 sponsorship applications, affecting the lives of over 450 Syrian refugees.

Your help is needed urgently.

Please ask the government and your local Member of Parliament to keep its promises – help to resettle Syrian refugees as soon as possible and not delay processing any further.

Let the government know where our union stands on supporting Syrian refugees.

Send a collective message to ensure that Canada continues to lead the world in assisting Syrian refugees. Time is of the essence, delays are unacceptable.

Lifeline Syria has learned that the government may be reconsidering its positions or quietly slowing down this process. Syrian refugees shouldn’t have to wait any longer. Unifor along with many organizations have already fundraised and prepared for imminent arrival!

Here is one thing you can do to help!

Email or tweet:  Minister Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, John McCallum

E-mail @email or on twitter @HonJohnMcCallum

Email or tweet a message to your own MP, find contact information here:  
http://www.parl.gc.ca/Parliamentarians/en/constituencies

Please join in supporting these three important asks, to demand a better future for Syrian refugees:

1) The government must immediately restore the resources needed to expeditiously process individual/group, like Unifor, Syrian refugee applications, which includes increasing staff in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey as well as here in Canada.

2) Remove any caps on the number of Syrian refugees that private Canadians agree to help. 

Private sponsorship admissions for Syrian refugees must be considered as an emergency response and not considered as part of the government's current refugee targets.

3) Increase the approval of the Blended Visa refugees to help the most vulnerable. There are hundreds of sponsorship groups across Canada who are ready to help immediately.

​Please take two minutes to let the Minister, and your MP know where you and our union stands.

Our support today can help make a better tomorrow for Syrian refugees.