On human smuggling, Tories plan to make Canada less desirable

For the Conservative government, new legislation that will subject some refugee claimants to detention is about more than deterring human smuggling.

It’s also about persuading both Canadians and Americans that this country’s borders are secure.

The Conservative government reintroduced legislation Thursday that aims to discourage ships from arriving off Canada’s coasts crammed with migrants seeking asylum. The bill allows the immigration minister to designate such claimants as an “irregular arrival,” making them subject to detention for up to a year while their identity is verified and their claims processed.

The purpose of the legislation, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said in an interview, is to make Canada less desirable as a destination for migrants who sometimes pay tens of thousands of dollars to human smugglers to travel here on unsafe vessels, such as the roughly 500 who arrived on the Sun Sea and Ocean Lady in 2009 and 2010.

But it is also intended, he said, to assure the U.S. government that Canada is taking the steps necessary to control the border at a time when the two governments are negotiating new economic and security agreements.

Full Article
Source: Globe & Mail