Canada working to resettle group of White Helmets evacuated from Syria

In a joint statement released on Friday, Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Ahmed Hussen, the country's minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, claimed that the White Helmets had been targeted  by the Syrian government and its ally, Russia.

"Together with a core group of international allies, Canada is working to resettle a group of White Helmets and their families," the statement read. "Canada has supported the work of the White Helmets by helping them to expand, train more volunteers, train more women and save more lives."

The statement also stressed Ottawa's  "moral obligation to assist" the so-called aid group.

Freeland told The Globe and Mail newspaper that she had been personally engaged in the resettlement process of the White Helmets.
The top Canadian diplomat further noted that for the safety of the so-called volunteers she could not disclose where they were and when they were coming to the North American country.

The White Helmets was founded in Turkey in 2013 by former British MI5 officer James Le Mesurier.

Since its establishment, the group has received at least $55 million from the British Foreign Office, $23 million or more from the US Office of Transition Initiatives and untold millions from Qatar. 

The White Helmets claims to be a humanitarian NGO, but both Damascus and Moscow have accused the group of having staged the suspected gas attack in the Syrian town of Douma on April 7.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad described the White Helmets as “a branch of al-Qaeda and al-Nusra" militant outfits and a “PR stunt” by the US, the UK and France.

Back in July, more than 400 White Helmets volunteers were evacuated from Syria to Israel and then to Jordan, to be resettled later in the UK, Canada, and Germany.

At that time, Canada expressed its readiness to accommodate 50 of them and their families, for a potential total of 250 people.

Earlier this week, Jordan announced that 279 White Helmets had left the kingdom for resettlement in Western countries.