Escaping Death, Quietly Settling in to Havens

"The White Helmets are 3,922 volunteer search and rescue workers from local communities who risk their lives to save others and bring hope."

"We rush to the scene of attacks to save the greatest number of lives in the shortest possible time and to minimize further injury to people and damage to property."
"We are a neutral and impartial organization. We do not pledge allegiance to any political party or group. We serve all the people of Syria – we are from the people and we are for the people."
Syrian Civil Defence  [White Helmets]

In this Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016, file photo, provided by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, rescue workers work the site of airstrikes in the al-Sakhour neighborhood of the rebel-held part of eastern Aleppo, Syria. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via The Associated Press)

Since their formation in 2013 as a non-political rescue group the White Helmets estimate they have been able to rescue up to 100,000 Syrian men, women and children in dire straits, victims of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's all-out war against his civilian Sunni Syrian population. To ordinary Syrians they are heroes, risking their own lives to secure those of strangers. Their exploits have become common knowledge. They too have been targeted by the Syrian regime for extermination, just as hospitals and clinics, breadlines and schools have been deliberate targets in the Sunni-majority areas of Syria.

Still grab from video: President Benjamin Netanyahu announcing the rescue by the Israel Defence Forces of a group of 400 White Helmet Families, bused from the Golan Heights into Jordan

Hundreds of White Helmets and their families were trapped by the advancing forces of the Syrian military. Their fate was obvious, as the Syrian military advanced they would target the White Helmets for death. The group recognized as  heroic by the West and by those whose lives they saved are considered to be 'terrorists' by President Bashar al-Assad whose agenda has been their extermination. And as far as Assad's ally Vladimir Putin is concerned, if the Syrian president considers them enemies and terrorists it's good enough assurance that's what they represent for the Kremlin to order air strikes on their positions.

An appeal went out to the Israeli cabinet to help rescue the trapped White Helmets. In response, the IDF was given orders by President Benjamin Netanyahu to spirit them by bus over the border into Jordan, where they would be safe. Germany, Britain and Canada had committed to absorbing the hundreds of White Helmets and their families escaping the fate that Assad had already visited over the years on hundreds of thousands of Syrians whom he regards as scum, labelling them terrorists for defying his authority. When in fact their work as firefighters, paramedics, in rescue and recovery, has earned them a place of honour and distinction in the historical record.



Though the July rescue was a success it was only a partial success; of the 900 members of the White Helmets trapped within Syria’s southern Daraa and Quneitra provinces only half that number was able to escape, the remainder consisting of a majority of the Civil Defence teams and their families remained trapped as the Russian and Syrian forces moved in too quickly to enable their rescue. Those rescued then spent three months in the Azraq refugee camp which holds an estimated 40,000 Syrian refugees awaiting resettlement.

Members of the White Helmets and their families are escorted onto a bus just past the Syria-Israel border after a harrowing rescue mission.

In August a ceasefire agreement took place permitting civilians and fighters who agreed to surrender their weapons to leave Daraa and buses took them to the province of Idlib in the northwest. Buses then took the remaining White Helmets to the last major rebel stronghold in Syria. "We believe that for them, maybe they’re not 100-per-cent safe from the war in Idlib, but they are in a place where the regime and the Russians can’t kill them. They are continuing their work, working with the White Helmets centres in Idlib", explained Raed Saleh, the head of the White Helmets.

Canada has now taken in, aside from the 40,000 Syrians that have been absorbed as refugees, their share of the White Helmet families, their exact numbers not yet disclosed. Mr. Saleh, speaking for the group he represents and for the Sunni majority Syrians whose millions of lives were shattered as they fled the violence, that neither Canada nor other Western countries should take part in the reconstruction of Syria until a political solution removing Assad from power takes place. "Assad committed war crimes. How can countries like Canada have relations with such a regime?"

Presumably, the thousands of White Helmets remaining in the northwest of Syria to continue their rescue work have the option to remain in the hope that Syria can eventually be reconstructed with its tyrant removed. If so, Russia, committed to the Assad regime's survival, remains to be convinced and that doesn't appear likely. For the time being the Civil Defence families that made it out of Syria are being screened and resettled in France, Argentina, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada.

"They not only helped rescue people who were caught in the conflict, they also collected evidence of war crimes, and that is why they were threatened directly by the Assad regime. Canada was called upon by the international community directly to respond. It wasn't just us, it was a collection of countries -- and we responded immediately."

"They performed an amazing and brave service on behalf of humanity in the civil war in Syria. It was a tough mission, it was a tough ask, but we delivered because we felt that White Helmets had done an exceptional service for humanity and we needed to be there to help them in their time of need."

Canadian Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen

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