Amazing! I actually agree with an Editorial in The Vancouver Sun.
“Migrant ship is a distraction from the bigger issue” was the opinion expressed by the paper Tuesday … and they have it right on. A lot of attention has been directed at the 490 Tamils who arrived on our shore a few days ago, and how they made it here … literally by the boatload.
Some Canadians say send them all back: wrong! Some want to let them all settle here: wrong!
I have no doubt there are legitimate refugees among them … people fleeing discrimination, threats, violence just because they are Tamils, hated, hunted and persecuted and by Sri Lanka’s Singalese army and majority population: and we should give those refuge. Just as we have accepted other legitimate refugees from Europe, Asia, South America, the Middle East, Africa … and have become a better country for it.
But that will do nothing to correct the real problems with our refugee processing system .. and the thousands of immigration process abusers, from around the world, who take advantage of it and play it like a fiddle.
As The Sun pointed out, the UN estimates there are 10 million refugees across the globe and almost 34,000 people appklied for refugee status in Canada last year alone.
Our system is woefully inadequate to handle these numbers, so almost all go free, settle down, enjoy the benefits of life in Canada for YEARS before their cases are fully dealt with … and many have children born here, further complicating the disposition of their cases.
An estimated 50,000 total refugee claimants are still waiting for outcomes … and the government has admitted they don’t even know where 38,000 of them are.
This is totally unacceptable … and makes a mockery of our whole refugee process.
I’ve said it before and stand by my position: all refugee claimants MUST be held in custody until their case (and any appeal) is fully adjudicated. And then those who are accepted can be welcomed; and those rejected and just trying to circumvent normal immigration rules and procedures, should be escorted directly to planes and flown home.
People who are legitimate refugees, who fled horrors where they came from, should not mind being detained here in safe, secure surroundings, well fed, given health care, television, telephone, even computer access while awaiting clearance to settle here.
And that detention in custody, followed by a direct plane trip home and maybe even a two-year prohibition from applying as ordinary immigrants, would no doubt discourage the fakers who are taking advantage of our current lax system. And the message that Canada’s no longer an easy mark would make it around the world to other fakers very fast.
Of course, with claimants held in custody instead of being released within days or weeks while their cases are weighed, the process for evaluating them must be sped up: Ottawa has to substantially expand the resources it provides to handle applications.
It’s not a case of lack of money: think of the hundreds of millions we now spend on housing, welfare, other services for the tens of thousands lingering in the current system for years!
The system is broken, and the federal government should fix it … pronto.
Not just try to profit politically from the anger and angst caused by the current failed process.
Harv Oberfeld
6 responses so far ↓
1 Andrew B // Aug 18, 2010 at 2:44 am
I loved learning that they get welfare checks and access to healthcare while they stall in court for up to 10 years. My girlfriend is from Japan, she has a degree, works a job that 98% of canadians cannot work due to her understanding of Japanese language and business, however is having massive issues getting a work visa. I told her to go home and just come back in a bathtub and she’d be admitted right away, sadly this is the case….
2 Patrick Bell (Not the MLA) // Aug 18, 2010 at 3:47 am
Andrew B.
Tell her I’ll charge her $50,000 and provide the boat for her and another 200 or so people to come over on….
that’ll easily set me up for a comfortable retirement for probably a slap on the wrist
3 Wilson // Aug 18, 2010 at 6:17 am
I don’t claim to be a rocket scientist but somehow this Tamil boatload (edited..h.o) does not add up. First we keep hearing about “human smuggling” and refugees paying upwards of $ 50,000 to jump aboard this “luxury” cruise liner. If this is true where the hell does a refugee get $ 50,000 in a third world country to pay for this voyage ? And if you really did have $ 50,000 in a third world country is this really the way you would choose to come to Canada? None of this makes sense. But that’s just me.
(Response: Really good point about the $50,000. Why couldn’t they just buy air tickets and even fly first class! It could be they couldn’t get proper exit visas etc because of discrmination etc …but you would think they could find a shorter boat ride to somewhere else and then calim refugee status there or fly the rest of the way…not spend three months in hammocks. h.o)
4 Gary E // Aug 18, 2010 at 2:55 pm
A 2 year prohibition for re applying wouldn’t work as well as a permanent one Harvey. Let’s stop them in their tracks for the attempt to abuse the more than generous system we have.
The word has been out far too long as to how easy it is to get here. And apparently how easy it is to disappear once landed. 38,000 out of 50,000. That’s appalling and a lot of people should get fired for not keeping track of them.
(Response: That so many are still unprocessed and so many are missing proves the system is broken. As for permanent ban, I think that’s easy to say, but too harsh… a lifetime sentence … when a two year or perhaps five year ban from applying would be suffiicent to make the point. h.o)
5 Bob T // Aug 19, 2010 at 4:15 am
The whole immigration and refugee process has been blatanly corrupted by Trudeau’s odious charter that serves only scumbag lawyers and lawless Federal Supreme Court.
Canada never had any problems with the immigration process upto 1975, when Trudeau came on the scene and there was a massive legal and constitutional mess when Diefenbakers Bill of rights was wholly corrupted by Eastern lawyers and became the present abomination – The Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982!
Our present Govt is totally useless at properly dealing wit this ongoing issue. Australia and the USA have no problem, they use naval power to force these illegal boats to return to their countries of origin or to specified destinations where the reugees can be properly detained and processed without any legal interference from either the lawyers nor (especially) the courts!
Mr Harper has to immediately use the Notwithstanding clause (S33) to nullify the absurd Singh decision passed by those useless buffoons in the Supreme Court and send a very loud message on behalf of very angry Canadians to all lawyers and judges to totally “butt out” when it comes to dealing with immigration, refugees , the attendant political corruption and massive criminal activities involved by international criminals and terrorists!
(Response: I saw on another site that only 17 per cent of our immigrants are selected because of qualifications that are needed in Canada. The bulk of the rest are from people already here sponsoring relatives …brothers, sisters, parents, grandaperents. h.o)
6 Henri Paul // Aug 19, 2010 at 4:34 am
J.S. // Aug 18, 2010 at 9:07 pm
My concern is that a mob mentality broke out earlier this year over the HST and that is dangerous in our society
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That has to be one of the goofiest comments that I have heard or read, for someone to make such a statement, he must have a very vivid
imagination and have been brought up in a very overly protected environment.
The next dumbest remark comes from a hired mouth piece who in court Wednesday compared anti-HST protesters to potheads
arguing their campaign is a waste of time and money.
http://www.timescolonist.com/lawyer+compares+anti+protesters+potheads/3414571/story.html#ixzz0x1PSBFPI
For participating in our democratic rights, in a supposedly democratic province we are characterized as drug addicts , this hired yap should be placed on that empty boat which brought the Sri Lankain migrants here and cast loose in the pacific ocean, the ignoramus.
I think all us HST protesters should call and or e mail this ignoramus and demand that he retract his remark and apologize to each and everyone of us, additionally, we should voice our displeasure with this ignoramus to the law society.
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