Kenney working on contingency plans if asked for help with Syrian refugee crisis

OTTAWA – The federal immigration minister says he’s working on plans in case Canada is asked to take in people fleeing the conflict in Syria.

Jason Kenney says officials from his department were recently in Jordan and Lebanon assessing the situation of Syrian refugees who’ve fled there.

The United Nations estimates that more than a million people have left the country since 2011 and that number could triple if no solution is found.

Kenney has been criticized for not acting to get some of them out of refugee camps or help their families bring them to Canada.

But he says the current position of the UN is that large-scale resettlement programs are not an option and he agrees.

Kenney says Canada continues to assist the UN financially to meet humanitarian needs created by the refugee crisis and more support is likely to be announced shortly.