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Additional foreign service officers are being sent to Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, where the majority of the more than four million Syrians who have fled their country have taken refuge.

Immigration officers are part of Canada’s foreign service and are trained in investigative techniques and immigration law. They would do the interviews at refugee camps and work with other departments, such as Canada Border Services Agency, to screen for security, criminal and health issues.

CIC spokesperson Nancy Chan said the department routinely uses people on “temporary duty” assignments to handle the demands at Canada’s missions abroad.

In an email, she said recently retired visa and immigration officers are part of the inventory of temporary assignment workers because they already have extensive experience in processing immigration applications both in Canada and abroad, and know the policies and rules of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

The Conservative government announced in January that Canada would resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees by 2017. So far it has accepted fewer than 2,500. During the election, it committed to resettling another 10,000 over four years if re-elected.

Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said the government is focusing on getting the 10,000 Syrian refugees it promised to resettle over the next three years into Canada by September 2016 – 15 months earlier than originally expected.

As part of the new measures, Syrians and Iraqis fleeing civil war and conflict will no longer have to prove they are convention refugees under the United Nations Refugee Agency.

The government has earmarked about $25 million over two fiscal years to cover its new measures. It also intends to double the number of workers at the Winnipeg processing centre where all applications are handled.

Alexander also said the government will appoint a special coordinator for Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

– With files from Lee Berthiaume, Ottawa Citizen.