The arrival in Vancouver by boat two weeks ago of 76 refugees from Sri Lanka has triggered a predictable wave of paranoia and xenophobia, not the least of which has come from our own Ministry of Immigration. Alykhan Velshi, director of communications and parliamentary affairs, felt compelled to reassure the public that:
We won’t allow Canada to become a place of refuge for terrorists, thugs, snakeheads and other violent foreign criminals. Nor will we support those who want to create a two-tier immigration system: one tier for law-abiding immigrants who wait patiently in the queue, and a second, for-profit tier for criminals and terrorists who pay human smugglers to help them jump the queue.
Minister Jason Kenney, somewhat less flamboyantly, has said, “We don’t want to develop a reputation of having a two-tier immigration system – one tier for legal, law-abiding immigrants who patiently wait to come to the country, and a second tier who seek to come through the back door, typically through the asylum system.”
On the face of it, the preemptive criminalisation of the 76 men as terrorists and snakeheads aside, it seems like a fair thing to ask: that whatever system Canada have in place for immigration be respected.
The fact is, however, that Kenney is being willfully misleading. As Shauna Lubman, of UBC Law, notes:
[Kenney’s] statement belies the fact that Canada has a two-pronged system already – the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) that legislates the entrance of both immigrants and refugees. There is no “back door.†There is an immigration door and an asylum door. While there is a clear legal process for entering Canada as an immigrant, it is specifically acknowledged in the 1951 Refugee Convention, whose signatories include Canada, that asylum seekers cannot be penalized for illegal entry. [emphasis mine]
Moreover, she continues,
Minister Kenney’s two-tier concern is misleading and completely misses the point that the Sri Lankan men might be genuine refugees. There are legitimate concerns with the arrival of migrants by boat, be they false or genuine refugee claimants. Human smuggling is a corrupt and exploitative criminal enterprise that should not only be discouraged but prosecuted. However, it is the smugglers who are the criminals, not the vulnerable migrants who in desperation pay their way into the smugglers’ hands.
Canada was a haven for refugees over the last twenty years. The federal government and provinces have welcome many refugees from all parts of the world. However, this generosity by the various levels of government have created a heaven for criminal activities by organized crime. They have studied the system in some respect better than most lawyers. This information is used to recruit people who are not really genuine refugees but economic immigrants. This system needs to be fixed and to fix it you may have to scrap the current one and start all over. Creating a system that is fair and equitable can be very challenging and expensive. Many of the refugees are conspirator or collaborator with the criminal elements. So we need to understand the social implications of continuing using a system that is broken. We need to help people who are facing political and ethnic difficulties in area where they are helpless and have no where or no one to turn to for help.
The Mark has collected some stories and reports on climate change, refugees, and migration.