Six more planes carrying Syrian refugees to land in Quebec by year’s end

MONTREAL – The Quebec government says about 1,800 more Syrian refugees are expected to land in Montreal by Dec. 31.

Provincial Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil and acting Public Security Minister Pierre Moreau say about 300 people will be on each of the six federal government-chartered flights scheduled to land at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport in the coming days.

They say about 100 of the Syrians will be government-sponsored refugees, with the rest being sponsored privately.

The Canadian government has pledged to welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February.

Immigration Minister John McCallum said last week the government will likely not meet its target of having 10,000 of them on Canadian soil by Jan. 1.

The federal website that updates progress says that 2,176 refugees have landed in Canada as of Christmas Day.