April 26, 2000
|
|
|
China urged to speed up migrants' return home
Human trafficking `akin to slavery,' Caplan says
By Martin Regg Cohn Toronto Star Asia Bureau
BEIJING - Canada is cracking
down hard on human smuggling and wants to return illegal migrants to
China more rapidly, Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan said here
yesterday.
The Toronto cabinet
minister has come to China to drive home the message that ``human
trafficking is akin to human slavery,'' and that young Chinese
migrants risk languishing in Canadian detention centres for months
if their clandestine voyages are exposed.
|
`If we cannot achieve
this, then the snakeheads win. It's that simple . . . all of
our efforts to intercept boats, detain arrivals, and process
claims quickly will have been wasted.' |
- Elinor Caplan Immigration
Minister
| But Caplan conceded that her
``awareness campaign,'' aimed at closing the smuggling routes used
by so-called snakeheads, depends heavily on co-operation from the
Chinese authorities for success.
No matter how many trafficking operations are intercepted on
either side of the Pacific Ocean, the only way to truly stop them is
for China to take back returnees more rapidly, she acknowledged.
``If we cannot achieve this, then the snakeheads win. It's that
simple,'' she told members of the Canada China Business Council.
``We can't keep them locked up indefinitely, and all of our efforts
to intercept boats, detain arrivals, and process claims quickly will
have been wasted.''
More than 600 Chinese nationals, crammed into four separate
boats, were caught off Canada's West coast last year. Of these, 450
are deciding whether to continue appealing for refugee status, but a
further 100 are ready to be removed once China provides the needed
paperwork.
Until China speeds up the documentation for these admittedly
illegal migrants, they will remain in detention in Canada. Now,
Caplan's challenge is to put pressure on the Chinese authorities,
who are said by Canadian officials to be dragging their feet.
``That's why I am here today - to seek co-operation with my
Chinese counterparts, not just to prevent human trafficking
operations in the future, but to see that these young people, those
in detention, are returned home as soon as possible,'' Caplan said
yesterday.
Beijing has previously said it would willingly take back its
nationals by the boatload, but remains leery of accepting
individuals on a case-by-case basis. China has publicly criticized
Canada's refugee determination policy, which gives migrants the
right to claim political persecution - and when those claims are
accepted, grants them refugee status.
A Fujianese newspaper reported recently that China had helped
other countries send back more than 3,000 illegal migrants last year
in more than 29 batches. By contrast, Chinese officials have
repeatedly complained that Canada's generous refugee determination
process serves as an incentive for illegal migrants, who are coached
by the snakeheads in how to seek asylum.
In her public comments yesterday, Caplan diplomatically thanked
her Chinese counterparts for co-operating in trying to stop human
smuggling. But when asked to spell out any progress made this week,
she pointedly declined to say whether the Chinese had agreed to
Canada's request to speed up repatriation of migrants whose refugee
claims had been rejected.
As if echoing the official position, a local Chinese journalist
persistently asked Caplan at a news conference yesterday why Canada
did not simply send back all the boat people at once, if it wanted
to send a strong message of deterrence back across the Pacific. And
he questioned why Canada has not followed the example of Australia
in distributing warning signs to discourage Fujianese from
attempting the trek.
The minister countered that Canadian laws and due process had to
be respected, including the obligation to assess any claims of human
rights abuses. And she beseeched the Chinese media to convey her
message of deterrence to would-be migrants, recalling the bleak
circumstances of those awaiting repatriation in Canada.
``I am going to deliver the message to young people not to be
deceived by snakeheads,'' she told reporters.
Caplan is scheduled to visit the coastal province of Fujian today
- the point of origin for the boat people - for meetings with the
provincial governor and security chief chief. In Beijing, she met
with the Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and Public Security Minister
Jia Chunwang.
Significantly, Beijing's complaints about Canada's refugee policy
comes against the backdrop of an unyielding crackdown by the Public
Security Bureau on the banned Falun Dafa cult. Scores of cult
members were arrested yesterday when they tried to meditate or
unfurl banners in Tiananmen Square on the first anniversary of a
mass sit-in protesting against government criticism of the mass
movement.
Police roughed up the worshippers and bundled them into vans
throughout the day, giving shocked foreign tourists outside the
Forbidden City a grim reminder that China remains in many ways a
police state. Human rights groups have documented numerous cases of
arbitrary detention, torture and even deaths of cultists who defied
the government's ban.
However, there is no evidence to suggest that the Fujianese boat
people arriving off Canada's shores last year were dedicated members
of the cult - most of whose adherents are elderly, and disinclined
to make difficult voyages abroad arranged by snakeheads.
Yesterday, Caplan made use of the attendance of Chinese
journalists at the Business Council meeting to outline the new
provisions in legislation unveiled earlier this month, which
proposes life prison sentences and $1 million fines for smugglers
and their accomplices.
But she brushed aside questions about corruption among local
Chinese officials who may be paid off to turn a blind eye to the
snakeheads' actions.
Instead, Caplan recited statistics supplied by the Chinese
authorities that 289 snakeheads were arrested last year, and 171 so
far this year.
``China is doing its part, and I want to thank Chinese officials
for their co-operation in working together with us to address these
challenges,'' she said.
``Together, we will send a clear message to smugglers and
traffickers that they will not succeed.''
Yesterday, the immigration minister was preaching to the
converted - Canadian business executives. The question now is
whether the snakeheads heed her message; and whether her Chinese
counterparts agree to play their part in the rapid repatriation of
illegal migrants.
|
|
Gridlock follows fatal crash
| |