|
Wednesday, September 22, 1999
Immigrant adults being detained indefinitely
By GREG JOYCE -- Canadian Press
VANCOUVER -- A lesson learned after the first of four boatloads of
Chinese refugee claimants arrived has resulted in the detention of adults
from all subsequent vessels, an immigration spokesman said Wednesday.
The department also wants to see the law changed to make detention
easier.
Since July, four decrepit vessels carrying a total of 599
migrants -- men, women and children -- from Fujian province in China have
arrived off British Columbia's coast.
Seventy-six people from the
first boat were released on a promise to appear for their refugee
hearings.
But 38 have since disappeared, prompting Immigration
Canada to issue warrants.
"The change is we learned a little bit
from history," immigration spokesman George Varnai said Wednesday. "We
have released no adults from boats two, three and four."
Immigration can detain an individual on one or more of three
grounds: no identification; a danger to the public; or a reasonable
expectation that the person won't appear at a subsequent hearing.
"Once we came up with the second boat and third and fourth boats,
we realized what we're dealing with is largest organized attempt at
evading Canada's immigration laws forever, maybe," said Varnai.
That alone made the situation different from the far greater total
number of refugee claimants who arrive at airports, he said.
"These are people who set out and risk their lives to come across
the ocean to enter Canada without examination, surreptitiously at place
other than a point of entry."
The disappearance of some of the
boat people prompted immigration officials to argue before refugee hearing
adjudicators that "they're not likely to reappear for the next stage. And
we've been successful."
"That's a change in policy for this
movement."
Varnai said the department has been considering for
some time recommending changes to immigration legislation to enact a more
aggressive detention policy.
"There is a possibility of the
legislation changing insofar as detention goes," he said.
The
current law, however, allows the department to make its detention
arguments, he said.
Peter Golden, a lawyer who represents some of
the refugee claimants from the first two boats, conceded Immigration was
within its rights.
"It's highly unusual (but) it's legal on its
face, although there may be somebody who'll challenge an adjudicator's
decision to keep somebody in detention," said Golden.
Golden said
his primary concern was that there were what he considered some legitimate
refugee claims from people on the first boat who disappeared nonetheless
out of fear.
"They're good cases based on religion, or
persecution," he said.
"I'm concerned that there have been threats
(from organizers, also known as snakeheads) to those people that have
forced them not to show up as they should have."
Experts say the
migrants, mainly from the impoverished Chinese province of Fujian, pay
smugglers thousands of dollars for an opportunity to start a better life
in the United States. Most end up as little more than slaves until they
repay the debt.
Golden said more energy should be put into
protecting the migrants within the community.
"I don't know that
detaining them (is proper) because it's very costly."
Meantime,
another immigration spokeswoman, Janis Harper, said the most up-to-date
figures show 429 people in detention at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt and
six other provincial corrections facilities in the Greater Vancouver area.
Another 80 children and juveniles are in the care of the B.C.
Children's Ministry, while 98 deportation orders have been issued
following initial hearings. Most are under appeal.
Some migrants
currently housed at Esquimalt and the other facilities are expected to be
transferred to a mothballed jail in Prince George.
Only one person
from the 599 has so far reached the Immigration and Refugee Board stage,
which resulted in a rejection.
"More are coming up soon," said
board spokesman Paul Hardie.
All migrants from the first boat are
expected to have their fate determined by Christmas; the second boat by
March, said Hardie. Appeals could follow the decisions.
It will
likely be next summer before all the current migrants are either granted
refugee status or rejected.
In Ottawa, Reform party immigration
critic Leon Benoit said he had heard from an immigration official, Jim
Redmond, that "they're expecting multiple arrivals of boats over these
next few days.
"They're preparing for the arrival of 400 or more
new arrivals by boat."
But immigration spokeswoman Lois Reimer
said Redmond had never spoken to Benoit. The Reform MP must have got his
incorrect information from a townhall meeting in Esquimalt on Monday, she
said.
Redmond never said more boats were coming, but was answering
a question about the potential capacity of the naval base, which has been
expanding its facilities in case more boats arrive.
Reimer also
insisted there are no boats currently on the way, as far as Immigration is
concerned.
Do you have an opinion about one of
our stories?Know someone who might be interested in this page?
Just type in the email address to send them the URL
|