If passed, the law will give the public safety minister the power to deem a mass arrival of refugee claimants, by ship or other method, an “irregular event,” and make them subject to provisions that include mandatory detention for up to a year without review while they are investigated and longer if necessary.
It also raises penalties for those doing the smuggling and introduces minimum sentences from 3 to 10 years depending on how dangerous the passage was, the money involved, and how many people were smuggled.
Human Smuggling a ‘growing threat’
“Canada welcomes thousands of new immigrants and refugees through one of the most generous and fair refugee systems in the world,” said Toews.
But this source of pride for Canada has come under attack from human smuggling networks, he added.
“Recent events at our borders show clear evidence of the growing threat of human smuggling to our nation and the hardworking people who live here.”
Towes drew attention to the 2009 arrival of the MV Ocean Lady which brought 76 Tamil migrants and was soon followed by 500 more on the MV Sun Sea. Then in October, he said a sea container was found at the Port of Montreal with other migrants who used a “dangerous and illegal” smuggling operation to get to Canada.
Providing law enforcement tools to investigate is not enough, he said, and the reason why the government needed additional legislation.
New Law Aims to Deter Criminal Networks
The goal of the legislation is to deter criminal networks from targeting Canada for human smuggling operations, said Kenney, noting that the $50,000 ticket some migrants purchase is valued in large part by the ease of gaining refugee status and associated benefits upon arrival in Canada.
Kenney noted that Canada’s world-high per-capita immigration levels have wide support from the Canadian people, but that could change.
“Large-scale criminal operations that seek to bring people to Canada through human smuggling operations represent a serious threat to public confidence and support in the fairness and the integrity of Canada’s refugee and immigration systems,” said Kenney.
But Canada will still welcome genuine refugees who arrive via an “irregular arrival,” he said. “We will not return people to face persecution,” he pledged.
But the legislation aims to deter those same people from using criminal networks to get to Canada. Refugees who do come via an “irregular arrival” will not be granted permanent resident status for five years. Nor will they be able to sponsor family members to come to Canada for the same length of time or visit the country they fled from during that time.
During the last session of Parliament, universal antipathy from opposition parties kept the Conservatives from bringing their human smuggling bill forward for debate after they tabled it because it faced almost certain defeat.
Read More…Immigration Services Challenged
