Monday, August 16, 1999

Diane Francis
National Post

Chinese officials warned Canada in June that smuggling of illegal aliens to Canada would increase because of our refugee policies, according to an internal Immigration Department report leaked to the National Post.

''The weakness and arbitrariness of refugee determination systems in foreign countries was a reason cited throughout this visit by officials from every department [in China] as being a major pull factor for illegal migration,'' the report warned.

''The message was clear in several meetings: You expect us to try to hold the lid on the boiling pot of illegal migrants, while your refugee, welfare and legal systems continue to put more kindling on the fire.''

Several high-level meetings were held between three Canadian diplomats and officials in China's Fujian province, where most of the smuggling takes place. Its population is roughly the size of Canada's -- 33 million -- and there are 3,300 kilometres of shoreline.

''Li [Qing Zhou, the Fujian vice-governor], assured us that the Fujianese are trying very hard to contain illegal migration, and have halted 10,000 would-be illegal migrants since 1989 and caught 300 persons involved in organizing smuggling in 1998 alone,'' the report notes.

The migrants are said to be mostly uneducated people from rural areas who are told they can get rich in America. They are not refugees as defined by the United Nations, the vice-governor said.

''Li stated forthrightly that persons from the above mentioned communities [in Fujian province] who claimed refugee status based on political reasons were not being truthful. He stated that persons with their level of education would not be comfortable with, nor would they likely be involved in, the political process in Fujian. He stated that any number of reasons may be given to the smugglees by their snakeheads [Chinese gang smugglers], but the reasons [and stories] were paper-thin.

''Li stated that regardless of the reason cited, the vast majority of persons are leaving Fujian in search of economic benefit. Regardless of the fact that the economy in Fujian is developing rapidly, it is still possible to make multiples of one's current wages in China by doing unskilled labour jobs [abroad].

Li stated that smugglers were very conversant with the refugee-determination systems of many countries, and assure their clients that they may often work legally even before their refugee determination is complete. They also understand that even should their refugee application fail, there is still a strong possibility that they may eventually become residents of the host nation and eventually bring the entire family legally and almost free abroad. It is common knowledge that smugglers are guaranteeing success and are sending persons a number of times and through different routings if they are caught initially. Li stated that he had heard of persons being caught up to seven times in attempts to exit China illegally.

Li and others who met with the Canadian contingent said they were under pressure from Beijing to stem the flow of illegals and, as a result, they were upset with the Canadian policies and upset with the exploitation of innocent Chinese who do not realize that they will not improve their lives this way.

''Ominously, the PSB [Public Security Bureau] stated that unless efforts were made to organize a plan to reduce Canada's attractiveness to Fujianese, we may see a rapid increase in the movement of Fujianese destined to Canada. In support of this statement, the Fujianese cited the American example of Guam: In 1998, about 100 persons went by boat to Guam and were not sent back, and the estimate to date in 1999 is that 700 persons have taken this routing,'' the report reads.

When told that a steady rise was experienced in Canada over the past few years, the PSB responded that this is likely because of the liberal image of Canada's refugee-determination system.

Chinese officials told the Canadians that the majority of the 2,000 Chinese refugees who arrived last year alone in Canada were from Fujian province, mostly from a county called Changle.

''It was acknowledged that wanted criminals may seek to illegally depart China to evade prosecution,'' concluded the report.

''[Canadian consul-general in Guangjong, Paul] Lau, raised the concern that together with smuggling comes an increase in crime,'' the report said.

''It was noted that this rise is likely tied to smuggling and the very real possibility that people are driven into crime by the snakeheads or out of desperation in an attempt to pay back their crushing debt to their alien smuggler was discussed. The PSB noted that smugglers were often, if not always, members of criminal organizations and were making massive profits. These profits are not generally limited to the original price for the smuggling itself. As an example, if the venture is priced at $40,000 (US), often only a small fraction ($1,000 to $2,000) was paid in advance. The rest of the money would be 'loaned' to the smugglees by the snakeheads and would bear onerous interest rates in the neighbourhood of 30%. The smugglee would then be forced to come up with the balance by a form of indentured servitude to the smugglers, and work off their debt in extremely low paying jobs with harsh conditions. The most common are likely in restaurants or manual labour for men, piecework garment manufacture or prostitution for women. Crime may well be resorted to out of fear of falling behind in payments as, according to one PSB officer, the snakeheads can reach the families in Fujian 'whenever they want.' ''

RELATED SITES:

(Each link opens a new window)

Citizenship and Immigration Canada

The brand-new white paper on immigration policy

Statistics Canada: Immigration and Citizenship

Statistics from the 1996 national census that look at where Canadians came from.

See related stories "Few of boat people make claims for asylum" by Stewart Bell and "Illegals used as cheap labour" by Adrienne Tanner on page A6.