Years ago, this building in Amman, Jordan, would have been busy with students. Now, in a country with more than 600,000 Syrian refugees, the former school is the largest United Nations refugee registration centre in the world.
It鈥檚 the building where many fleeing violence in their home country end up, and where many will begin their journey to a new home.
Karen Whiting, who has been working for the UN in Jordan since 2013, is one of the workers helping to bring Syrian refugees to Canada.
鈥淢any of these people will have experienced stressful situations, traumatic situations, inside Syria,鈥� Whiting says. 鈥淏ut also their life here in displacement may not have been very easy.鈥�
The resettlement process begins by identifying the vulnerable among the hundreds of thousands of refugees.
鈥淭he criteria we are using to look is: complete families. And we are also looking for socio-economic vulnerability,鈥� Whiting says.
One example is 36-year-old Imad, a former Syrian teacher and father who sits at the centre with his family. Imad, though, says he鈥檚 not ready to give up on his home. He hopes to someday return to Syria.
鈥淚 know it鈥檚 not possible now, but perhaps one day,鈥� he says. 鈥淯ntil then, we will stay.鈥�
Potential candidates are first identified during extensive phone interviews. After passing that test, they move onto a rigorous screening process.
Interviews are conducted in one of more than 40 intake rooms, where iris scans are used to confirm the identity of applicants -- and that鈥檚 just for approval by the UN.
Canadian officials will conduct their own assessments from the pool of those who pass these first sets of tests.
That screening centre is now operational in Jordan with a goal of processing 500 applicants per day.
With a report from CTV鈥檚 Melanie Nagy in Amman, Jordan
