Canada will welcome 7,000 Syrian refugees from Turkey, IOM says

Canada would receive about 7,000 Syrian refugees from Turkey by the end of February, the head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

In total, Canada will resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February, the largest group coming from Jordan, followed by Lebanon and Turkey, William Lacy Swing, director general of the International Organization for Migration, told Anadolu Agency in Geneva.

Compared to Canada, the U.S. plans to admit 10,000 refugees from Syria during the 2016 fiscal year.

Over 1 million refugees have arrived in Europe by sea and land this year so far, the IOM said on Tuesday.

According to IOM, almost 3,700 refugees died crossing the Mediterranean and 1,005,504 refugees have arrived in Europe by sea and land so far this year.

Some 971,289 people reached Europe by sea via the Mediterranean and 34,215 people reached Europe by land after crossing from Turkey into Bulgaria and Greece.

About 816,000 people arrived in Greece by sea and 4,000 people arrived in Greece by land.

The organization said 800,000 refugees reached Europe via the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece, accounting for 80 percent of the refugees arriving irregularly in Europe by sea in 2015. Half of those who crossed the Mediterranean were fleeing Syria.

Some 219,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean last year.

Canada's new Liberal government is pushing forward with its pledge to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February. Minister of Immigration and Citizenship John McCallum has said Canada hopes to settle 35,000 to 50,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2016, with the UN refugee agency, the Jordanian government and the International Organization for Migration assisting with the vetting process.