Class of 90
VANCOUVER - Refugee advocates have blasted
Citizenship and Immigration officials for handing out golf shirts to
staff with the inscription "Class of 90". That refers to the 90
illegal migrants deported to China last month.
'A bit of a
trophy shirt' | They were among the
600 boat people who arrived off the B.C. coast last summer.
"I think it's very harmful to this whole process to be
celebrating the deportation of 90 people," says Victor Wong, an
advocate for the migrants, "because those 90 people right now are
languishing in a Fujian jail. It makes the golf shirt a bit of a
trophy shirt."
Rob Johnston, the manager of Immigration's Vancouver Enforcement
Office, says the shirts were supposed to acknowledge his staff's
many months of long hours of committed work with the migrants.
"They've done this in a very caring manner. If you saw the way
that our staff dealt with people you'd have a totally different
outlook," he says. "It really saddens me that an effort made to try
to recognize employees for all that hard work was taken totally out
of context."
Johnston says there was no intention to make the shirts a
celebration at anyone's expense.
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