National Post Article: Do You Think Tamil Migrants Are Genuine Refugees Or People Exploiting The Canadian Immigration System?
Kevin Libin: What Australia can teach us about the Tamil asylum seekers
Kevin Libin August 12, 2010 – 9:14 pm
Geir Vinnes
Photo of the Harin Panich 19, now renamed the MV Sun Sea, which is reportedly en route to Canada with 200 Tamil refugees aboard.
No one can say the MV Sun Sea took the Canadian government by surprise. Unlike the Ocean Lady, which turned up off B.C.’s coast in October with a cargo of 76 young Sri Lankan men scarcely a week after officials learned of its existence, Ottawa began tracking this Thai cargo ship, which arrived yesterday in B.C. waters, more than a month ago.
With its freight of illegal immigrants, the ship was headed for Australia; it rerouted and set course for B.C. And yet, Canada, as evidenced by the fact the ship is now in Canadian custody, and its hundreds of passengers about to be absorbed into our refugee and immigration system, could do not a single thing to stop it.
Like Australia, which faced increasing waves of human-cargo ships in the 1990s until harder-nosed, but divisive, policies were adopted, Canada is gradually confronting the difficult challenge of how to maintain a coastal haven for the world’s truly desperate, while keeping its immigration and refugee system from being overwhelmed by those who would exploit it for profit—or worse.The Conservative government understood back in July that this could only be the beginning. Questioning of Ocean Lady passengers suggested the October ship was a pilot project; a test case, say government sources. With the last group having been since released from custody, now settled in Canada awaiting what will likely be a years-long, but probably successful, process of gaining residency, the Sun Sea, with 490 passengers, reportedly including women and children, is the second wave of a project.
Related
Tamil human-smugglers are testing Canada: the more welcoming they find our shores for their mortal payload, the more ships full of Sri Lankans they can send. It is, says one source, a fate that, under current laws, Canada is helpless to prevent. The only alternative, he says, is to change the system.
If we don’t, Canada could well become the next Australia, warns Martin Collacott, a former high commissioner to Sri Lanka and a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute where he studies immigration and refugee policy.
Beginning in the ‘90s, that country was inundated by “boat people,” with arrivals peaking at more than 4,000 in 2001 from 100, in just a decade. In 1991-92, just three boats reached Australia with illegal immigrants; in 1999-2000, there were 75.
“The Tamils know very well what’s likely to happen when they get here. They study us quite carefully, and they figure the odds are much better in Canada,” Mr. Collacott says. Speedier and more definitive processing in the U.S.—where, unlike here, pending claimants can’t work or bring in family members—has earned this country the reputation as “the softest touch in the world.”
Canadians are generally open to legitimate refugees, Mr. Collacott believes, and the country invites between 10,000 and 20,000 a year through legal means—often via UN refugee camps. But there are dim views of those gaming the system, with a 2007 Citizenship and Immigration Canada poll finding a large majority of respondents favouring deporting illegal immigrants not deemed legitimate refugees.
And although Canada’s definition of that term is particularly liberal—refugee status is for anyone with a “well-founded” fear of being persecuted for their race, religion, politics, nationality, or membership in an identifiable group—Sri Lankan Tamils don’t conspicuously fit that bill. Amnesty International’s latest report on Sri Lanka notes that humanitarian concerns have arisen since its long-running civil war between the government and the separatist Tamil movement, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE—or the Tamil Tigers) ended last year, including delays in resettling displaced persons and the ongoing detention of individuals suspected of being part of LTTE, considered a terrorist group in Canada, as well as Sri Lanka. There is, however, no report of persecution of the Tamil community in general. A July UN report described “greatly improved” security in Sri Lanka and clarified that Tamils should not be assumed to be in need of asylum.
Canadian reviews of the situation have turned up similar results. “There may be discrimination,” says one immigration ministry source. “They’re like Blacks in the American South.” Australia in April imposed a moratorium on processing asylum claims from Sri Lanka citing “evolving” conditions in that country.
Still, Canada has one of the highest refugee acceptance rates in the world, and 85% of Sri Lankans applying this year have gained refugee status.
There are also indications that the Sun Sea may be part of a Tamil Tiger plot. Reportedly, India police recently arrested an alleged LTTE organizer who confessed to organizing “massive trafficking of LTTE cadre to various parts of the world.” A former U.S. deputy secretary of defence for South and Southeast Asia this week called the Sun Sea a “scam”; an LTTE effort to “create a network” to revive its “transnational terrorist game.” The Canadian Tamil Congress calls this “propaganda” perpetrated by a racist Sri Lankan government.
Canada is in a bind. Having seen few boat people, historically, thanks to our remoteness from hotspots, our immigration and refugee system is ill equipped to deal with flooding hundreds or thousands of supposed asylum seekers who, once here, are unlikely, statistics show, to ever be removed once settled with their families. Public Safety minister Vic Toews this week called marine human smuggling an “emerging” concern.
The government is anxious for solutions. It is reportedly looking at contracting Asian navies, in Cambodia, Thailand and Japan—none of whom heeded Ottawa’s requests to interdict the Sun Sea—to intercept smuggling ships en route to Canada.
Ottawa is also now reported to be looking at strategies implemented by former Australian prime minister John Howard that put a rapid stop to the uninvited human transports arriving on his shores. Announcing in 2001 “we will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come,” Mr. Howard’s Pacific Solution, as it was called, created offshore island processing centres, outside Australia’s migration zone, where uninvited ships were forcibly redirected. Arrivals remained technically outside the country until their claims were evaluated. In the subsequent six years—before the policy was reversed by the incoming Labour government—the number of human smuggling boats averaged just three a year.
Some inside Canada’s government recommend working co-operatively with Australia in creating a joint offshore processing centre. After all, Australian voters, after trying both ways, have apparently decided lately they prefer Mr. Howard’s approach after all. The Australian Labor Party, led by Kevin Rudd, came to power in 2007 calling the Pacific Solution a “cynical, costly and ultimately unsuccessful exercise,” and promising a kinder, gentler way. But within the last year alone, the number of boats arriving in Australia was back over 100, the number of passengers, at nearly 5,000—the highest ever. It was, says Mr. Collacott, who also sees offshore processing as Canada’s best alternative, one reason Labor fired Mr. Rudd as leader in June. Australia’s new prime minister, Julia Gillard announced last month that she would begin reviving offshore processing for asylum seekers once again.
National Post
Toronto Star Article: Tamil Migrants Exposes Canadian Society’s Racism & Prejudices Against South Asian Immigrants.
Tamil asylum-seekers spark Canadian vitriol, anger
Mass hysteria common with large groups of refugees: Expert
“Send them back.”
“These boat people are abusing the system, taking us for a ride.”
“So they’ve come from a very bad situation. So what? So do a lot of other people … why should we have to take everyone in?”
Since the MV Sun Sea — the boat carrying 490 Tamil refugees — docked near Victoria on Friday, news websites and call-in radio shows have been inundated with vitriolic comments, media coverage has been sensational and there’s even been a protest against letting the boat into Canadian waters.
Angry people from across the country have accused the asylum-seekers of jumping the immigration queue, being associated with Tamil Tigers — an organization banned by many countries, including Canada — and of being a burden on Canadian taxpayers.
This level of backlash and mass hysteria is unexpected but not unprecedented, say experts.
“It’s is not the first time that the Canadian government has whipped up public anxiety at the arrival of asylum-seekers,” said Myer Siemiatycki, a professor in immigration settlement studies at Ryerson University.
It has happened numerous times but most recently in 1987 when 174 Sikhs landed by boat in Charlesville, N.S., and again in 1999 when some 600 Chinese migrants arrived at the shores of British Columbia.
There was mass hysteria then, just like it is now.
“When the government uses words like smuggling, Tamil Tigers and terrorists, most Canadians assume there is evidence,” said Siemiatycki. “But there isn’t … and making statements like that is irresponsible and does terrible injustice to the people on the boat.”
The Canadian government is partially responsible for stoking this mass hysteria, he added.
What’s playing out “is the sixth or the seventh sequel of some Grade B horror movie called Here Come the Boat People,” said Siemiatycki. “It’s the same thing every time … it’s tiresome, unworthy of Canada.”
Human rights activists also fear that this kind of fear-mongering creates a climate of hate and people become distrustful of all immigrants and refugees.
“Is that what we want?” asked Walid Khugali, who works with the Canadian Arab Federation.
But he doesn’t think this mass anger will make government send refugees away. “That would be shocking and damaging for Canada’s international reputation if we make any changes in law.”
In a country where almost 30,000 people apply for refugee protection every year — roughly a hundred people a day — there’s nothing extraordinary about these 490 Tamil asylum-seekers, said Hadayt Nazami, a lawyer who works with Barbara Jackman and represented several Tamil refugees who came aboard Ocean Lady last fall.
“The amount of prejudice and bigotry is shocking,” said Nazami. “It’s only taken one boat to incite so much hatred.”
But he agrees there are some genuine concerns out there.
The large number of asylum-seekers means it’ll take time to eliminate fears of any association with the Tamil Tigers. “What people don’t understand is that it’s impossible for anyone with a questionable background to get into Canada. If they are not genuine refugees, they will go back. But we have to give them a chance.”
Canadians will be gentler and more inclusive once they hear the stories of these people, predicts Lorne Waldman, a well-known Toronto immigration lawyer.
“They will then see that these are human beings and have led a terrible existence … I think the reaction will change,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tamil-Canadian advocacy groups say they are trying to clear misconceptions.
“When we heard about the boat, we knew some people would be upset about it,” said Manjula Selvarajah, a spokesperson for Canadian Tamil Congress. “We are now realizing that somehow our community hasn’t shed enough light on what’s happening with Tamils in Sri Lanka, or the contribution that Tamils have made in Canada.”
Maria Sharapova Chokes The Cincinnati Masters Final & Loses To Kim Clijsters Of Belguim 2-6 7-6 6-2!
Kim Clijsters of Belgium staged an incredible comeback today she outlasted Maria Sharapova of Russia 2-6 7-6 6-2 in the Cincinnati Masters final. Sharapova squandered three match points despite having a 6-2 5-3 lead in the second set. Yes, there was a rain delay, but I am shocked that Maria Sharapova lost this match! Sharapova is usually very mentally strong but not today. Clijsters must be very pleased, she’s won her third WTA title this year. Clijsters has now won 38 WTA titles in her tennis career. Clijsters should be feeling good, she is the defending US Open Women’s Champion! Clijsters demonstated impresive mental toughness to fight back and win the match! Well done Kim!
Gayblackcanada 