Canada's ambassador says its fast-track resettlement of Syrian refugees can serve as a 'model'

AMMAN, Jordan – Canada has launched a fast-track resettlement program for Syrian refugees that the nation's ambassador to Jordan says could serve as a model for other countries.

Typically, resettling refugees takes months or years, and only a small fraction of more than 4 million Syrian refugees have legally immigrated to Europe or North America.

With conditions in regional host countries such as Jordan and Lebanon increasingly difficult, hundreds of thousands have sneaked into Europe this year on dangerous sea journeys.

Ambassador Bruno Saccomani said in an interview Wednesday that Canada will take in 25,000 refugees by the end of February, with the first 10,000 to be resettled by the end of 2015.

He says that "definitely, this is a new model" and that diplomats from other countries have expressed interest in it.