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A key part of the plan involves the UN identifying 15,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees to come to Canada by the end of February. Private sponsors, such as family members and church groups, will be responsible for the other 10,000.

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The officials said the UN had sent more than 41,000 text messages to potential applicants to see if they were interested in coming to Canada. When the UN followed up with phone calls asking if the identified Syrians were interested in coming to Canada by Dec. 31, they found only about 28,000 of those phone numbers worked.

Even then, only 3,049 agreed to meet with UN officials for an interview. And of those, only 1,801 – or less than five per cent of those the UN initially tried to contact – said they wanted to come to Canada. Those refugees have since been referred to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada for screening.

Immigration officials said part of the reason for the seemingly lukewarm response was because many of the refugees were not prepared to move so quickly. They said such response rates are typical, and that applications had started to pick up as prospective refugees were given until the end of February to make the move.

De Angelis said there are several reasons many of those identified by the UN for possible resettlement would be unwilling or unable to leave for Canada at the drop of the hat. The first and most important factor, he said, is their family situation.

“Due to their culture and society, families are very bound together,” he said. “One family may be a father, mother and children, but they will not take such a drastic decision without consulting the larger family links. And this may take some time and may also need some more reflection in terms of the different options.”