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Friday, July 30, 1999

Learn the facts before rejecting new arrivals
The idea that we are being flooded with refugees is a myth

Francisco Rico-Martinez
National Post

A boat arrives in Vancouver with 123 passengers on board, having made a difficult 39-day voyage from China. Before the passengers have a chance to tell their story, they have been labelled economic migrants, queue-jumpers, illegals, criminals. Within days commentators are urging that the laws be changed and the Charter of Rights be set aside so such boats can be pushed back and Canada be protected from the peril of these unwanted arrivals.

Twenty years ago other boats, these filled with Vietnamese refugees, captured Canadians' attention. When neighbouring countries gave them a hostile welcome, pushing some boats back, Canadians were horrified. The plight of these refugees moved Canadians to launch a massive resettlement program that brought 60,000 Indochinese to this country in just two years. The generous and enthusiastic welcome Canada has been offering more than 5,000 refugees from Kosovo has been in the same spirit.

So why has the boatload of Chinese generated such hostility?

Many will say: because they are not refugees. Yet what do we know about why they left? Who knows what individual stories of persecution may have driven them to make this uncertain voyage on a rickety ship? Ten years after the Tiananmen Square massacre, human rights reports continue to present a disturbing picture of rights routinely disrespected in China.

The horrors of the flight of the Vietnamese "boatpeople" and the Kosovar refugees were well-publicized. Daily TV and newspaper reports told us their story. But most refugees don't get that kind of coverage. Their sufferings go unrecorded in the media. There is no sticker on their forehead that proclaims them to be refugees. This is why we have a determination process to distinguish between those who are refugees and need our protection and those who are not. It is premature to say they should all be immediately sent back before they have been able to say anything. Yet we have branded them "economic migrants" before they have even entered the determination process.

Another reason for the hostility towards the Chinese is that they arrived uninvited, without waiting their turn, going through the due processes and following the law.

Yet if any of the Chinese travellers prove to be refugees we won't be able to blame them for coming uninvited. It is in the nature of being a refugee: You are forced to flee and can't be expected to wait for someone's permission. This is why, according to international law, rules prohibiting illegal entry into a country don't apply to refugees fleeing persecution.

We recently saw what happens when countries flout this principle: In response to the unwelcome arrivals of uninvited Kosovar refugees, the Macedonian government closed its border on several occasions, leaving Kosovars stranded on the wrong side of the border, under the noses of their persecutors.

But, we are told, drastic measures need to be taken because Canada is too easy to get into. How can we possibly say that spending 39 days in an ill-equipped boat is an easy way to get into Canada? Whether or not the passengers were refugees, they must have been quite desperate to set out on such a voyage.

The fact is that our geography means that only a minute proportion of the world's refugees ever reach our shores. Canada receives less than three-tenths of one per cent of the world's refugees. Contrast this with Pakistan, which has by itself 10%.

Nor is Canada being overwhelmed by vast numbers of non-refugees abusing the refugee determination system. The number of refugee claimants received each year has remained very stable at roughly 25,000 annually.

Bear in mind, too, that last year Canada actually received far fewer immigrants than the government had planned for: 20% (42,000 immigrants) fewer than the year before. Ironically, the shortfall was blamed on the "Asian flu."

Critics and observers of Canada's refugee and immigration policies can probably all agree that the system is not perfect. No doubt it can be improved. But the arrival of a mere 123 claimants by boat is certainly not cause for calling into question the whole system. Or for proposing the elimination of people's basic right to be treated fairly.

The public arena is an appropriate forum for discussing policy changes (preferably in an informed and calm manner). Trial by media, however, is not the way to determine what should happen to these 123 Chinese claimants. We have a system to deal with that.

So why don't we cool down and let the system do its job?

Francisco Rico-Martinez is the president of the Canadian Council for Refugees.