Phase 1 – Identifying Syrian refugees to come to Canada

We started Operation Syrian Refugees (OSR) with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and private sponsors identifying Syrian refugees in need of resettlement who were:

• outside of Syria
• registered either with the UNHCR or the Government of Turkey, or identified by a private sponsor

To start the process for government-assisted refugees, the UNHCR contacted registered refugees in Jordan and Lebanon by SMS (text message). If interested in resettling in Canada, the UNHCR sent them to a Canadian official.

We contacted the privately sponsored refugees for whom we already had applications.

A few weeks later, we began working with the Government of Turkey and the UNHCR to identify Syrian refugees who were already registered in Turkey and interested in resettling in Canada.