A new wave of refugees is expected to call the Harbour City home in the coming days, weeks and months.
According to the Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society, more than two dozen government assisted refugees will be arriving in Nanaimo from now until December.
Kelly McBride, acting executive director for the society, said one family has already arrived in Nanaimo and that the other refugees will be arriving a lot slower than the last batch of government-assisted refugees.
“There will be 40 or so individuals coming over,” she said. “They should be arriving a lot slower than they did in the first round.”
McBride said she does not know all the details about where the incoming refugees are coming from, but that some of them will be from countries such as Eritrea and Iraq.
“Roughly 10 per cent of them will be non-Syrian,” she said.
The incoming refugees will be coming directly from overseas, according to McBride, who said they will arrive at the Nanaimo Airport, unlike in the past when some government-assisted refugees were bused in from Victoria.
“Initially they were flown to the major ports,” she said. “But now that they are coming at a much slower and more controlled rate, the refugees are being flown straight through.”
McBride said an exact arrival date for the remaining refugees has not been given.