Yukon Cares ups efforts to bring more Syrian refugees to territory

Whitehorse-based charitable group Yukon Cares is hoping to bring four more refugeefamilies to the territory within the next year or two, according to its president, Raquel de Queiroz.

She said Yukon Cares which sponsored the first Syrian refugee family to come to Yukon, two years ago isworking on a number of refugee files.

The community organization was founded to re-settle refugees in the territory. It's nowassisting an Eritrean man who has come to Canada from Israel, de Queirozsaid.

It is also waiting for the final clearances for a single Syrian man and a Syrian family of five,said de Queiroz. They are relatives of the Aarafats, the first family whocame to Yukon.

De Queiroz said knowing how long it will take for the newcomers to arriveis like predicting the weather it's hard to know.

"It's really up to the speed of the government at the federal level at this point, and all we can do is advocate for things to be processed faster," she said.

Yukon Cares has also applied to become part of afederal government program set up to help refugees. The program covers half the cost of supporting refugees during their first year in Canada with community sponsors covering the rest, said de Queiroz.

Thoserefugees have been pre-approved by the government so they can arrive in Canada relatively quickly once they've been paired with local sponsors, she said.

Yukon Cares has raised enough money for two families under that plan, she said.

Not unusual to move on

Yukoners have not lost any enthusiasm after the three previous families left Yukon for better job opportunities in southern Canada, said de Queiroz.

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People moving to find new opportunities is not unusual in Yukon or the rest of Canada, said de Queiroz.

"I came from Brazil, lived a few different places in Canada before I settled in the Yukon," she said.

De Queirozsaid there's no end in sight for Yukon Cares since there's no sign various refugee crises in the world will be solved soon.

The UN Refugee Agency said last year that more than five million Syrians arerefugees.