Two Palestinian families fleeing war-torn Iraq via a Syrian refugee camp are finding refuge in eastern Ontario, fulfilling one of the last requests from a humanitarian worker taken hostage and slain in the Middle East more than a year ago.

Fatima Askari, left, and her children Ahmed, 12, and Dina, 9, will be living with Daad Elsaadi, right, in the small community of Finch, Ont.
(CBC)

Sabri El Koury, Fatima Askari and their children Ahmed, 12, and Dina, 9, along with two other refugees, Mohamed Younis and Lama Azayza, were greeted with gifts and flowers at the Ottawa airport on Wednesday — World Refugee Day — by some new Canadian friends.

"It feels like we were in hell and now we are in heaven," said Younis at the airport, speaking through his translator and sponsor, Rana Abdulla. "They had no education and they're looking forward to a better life for their children to live in peace and safety."

El Koury's family will be staying in Finch, south of Ottawa, with Daad Elsaadi; and Younis's family will be staying with Rawda and Hani Abu-Zreibeh in Martintown, near Cornwall. Both families own restaurants.

Their arrival was made possible in part by Tom Fox, an American who was one of four volunteers for Christian Peacemaker Teams who were abducted in Baghdad in November 2005. The team also included two Canadians — Jim Loney of Toronto and Harmeet Singh Sooden, a former Montrealer who lives in New Zealand — and a British man.

The activists' lengthy captivity attracted international attention. Fox's tortured body was found in Baghdad in March 2006, while the other captives were freed later that month.

Four days before his abduction, Fox spoke with Abdulla. He begged her to help the Palestinians that he helped bring to safety among the cramped tents of the Al-Hol refugee camp in Syria — a camp set up by the United Nations for Palestinians who had been persecuted in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Rana Abdulla has been working to bring the refugees to Canada for 22 months, since she was contacted by Tom Fox, who was slain in Iraq in March 2006.
(CBC)

Hussein's regime treated Baghdad's 25,000 Palestinians well, offering them subsidized housing and other services, Abdulla said. But after the regime's fall, they were accused of supporting Hussein. Some were intimidated, kidnapped or tortured.

Fox's call persuaded Abdulla — who teaches taxes and finance at Ottawa's Algonquin College — to sponsor 24 Palestinian refugees from Iraq 

Abdulla's parents and husband once lived in a refugee camp and she had previously sponsored dozens of other refugees.

She said she was moved by the plight of "Tom Fox's people."

She started the paperwork right away, and 22 months later, on Wednesday, finally saw the results of her efforts.

"I'm very blessed that I have the opportunity to help them live in peace," she said.

Abdulla said she expects the remaining 18 refugees she sponsored to arrive and settle in Canada by the end of the month.