Fort McMurray’s population rises by 6 — make that 7 — after new family of Syrian refugees arrive
By David Thurton, CBC News Posted: Feb 01, 2017
Ibtesam Alkarnake was already in labour when she and her Syrian refugee family arrived at the Fort McMurray airport on Tuesday night. Hours later in hospital, she gave birth to her son, Eyad. (Submitted by Fort City Church)
David Thurton
When her water broke somewhere between a refugee camp in Jordan and her new home in northern Alberta, she did not tell a soul.
Ibtesam Alkarnake wanted so badly for her baby to be born in Canada that she kept quiet for hours, silently enduring her labour pains.
While much of the world’s attention was still focused on U.S. President Donald Trump’s ban on refugees from Syria and restrictions on six other predominantly Muslim countries, or on the massacre at a Quebec City mosque, church sponsors were meeting the Alkarnake family at the Fort McMurray airport on Tuesday evening.
Ibtesam Alkarnake was taken to a local hospital, where her son, Eyad, was born a few hours later.
He weighed just over six pounds.
“Brute determination on the mom’s part to have the baby in Canada,” Fort City Church Pastor Doug Doyle said Wednesday about the final day in the family’s two-year ordeal, which saw them fly from Amman, Jordan, to Frankfurt, Germany, and then on to Calgary and Fort McMurray.
Somewhere along the way, Doyle said of the young mother, “her water broke and she told no one.”
Long journey from Jordan
The baby’s birth was just the latest episode in a long struggle to bring the six — now seven — members of the Alkarnake family to Canada.
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Their determined local sponsors overcame last May’s wildfire and, more recently, fears about Muslims and refugees among a minority of the church’s congregation.
“There is that concern,” Doyle said. “Who are we letting into our country? And is this a safe thing to be doing for the safety of Canada?”
Churchgoers and members of the community showed up at the Fort McMurray airport on Tuesday night to welcome the family of Syrian refugees. (Submitted by Fort City Church)
Doyle and church members met the Alkarnake family for the first time at the airport’s arrival lounge. Hugs and welcome posters capped off a private sponsorship that began long before the current Liberal government’s refugee program kicked into high gear in 2015.
The Alkarnake family fled their bombed-out home in Syria five years ago, and had lived much of the time since then in a camp in Mafraq, Jordan, with more than 100,000 other refugees.
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Categories: Canada, Jordan, Syria, The Muslim Times