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Standing
Committee on Citizenship and Immigration
EVIDENCE
CONTENTS
Thursday, December 2, 2004
* Mr. Nick Summers
(President, Canadian Council for Refugees): Thank you.
...You will hear the
minister tell us at some length that there are 20, 30, or 40 levels of
appeal, depending on which press release you read. But the fact is, there
are no appeals. There is a judicial review of a refugee board decision.
That is not the same thing as an appeal. It is very limited and very few
people succeed. There are a number of procedures for not being removed
from
Canada
and for entering the immigration system, but again, they don't deal with
the merits of a refugee claim, and it is very rare that they are
successful for refugee claimants.
So
we have a large number of people who are being rejected without any
remedy, and we see some very strange results. There's a case right now
in
Canada
of two Palestinian brothers: same town, same situation; one was
accepted by the refugee board, one was rejected, and there is no way to
correct that situation.
...
* Ms. Amy Casipullai
(Vice-President, Canadian Council for Refugees): Thank you, Nick.
...I want to move on
to the safe third country agreement. It's an agreement to which we remain
fundamentally opposed, and I think we've been fairly clear on that. It's
due to come into effect December 29, and it means refugees who seek
protection in
Canada
will be sent back to the
U.S.
, where in some cases they might be denied protection. Now, Nick just
mentioned the case of two Palestinian brothers who were from the same
refugee camp, where one was accepted and one was rejected. Well, the
second brother, the brother who was deported, was removed to the
United States
, where he's currently in jail. I think that speaks to our concerns,
that we are not quite certain refugees will receive the protection they
need if they are sent across the border.
We
also understand that the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill
with provisions that will reduce refugee protection. If those provisions
are adopted, then it will be even clearer that the
U.S.
is not a safe country for refugees.
* Ms. Avvy Yao-Yao
Go: Can I add a few comments with respect to the immigration side?
...In terms of one of
the processes in place now for people who have failed the refugee process,
since there's no right to appeal, there is a pre-removal risk assessment
process, or PRA process, that is done for people who have failed the
refugee process. Prior to their being removed from
Canada
, they can apply through this PRA process to have their risk assessed.
These assessments are done by immigration officers.
The
success rate for PRA is three percent. Three percent of all the failed
refugee claimants, including one of the Palestinian brothers, would go
through this process. You wonder why it's only three percent, given all
the problems we have talked about with respect to refugee determination.
I'm not sure whether it's a political appointment or whatever appointment.
Certainly training of officers is an issue, and the kinds of guidelines
and policies in place to assist the officers in making these PRA decisions
would be an issue. It's a combination of various factors—the background,
the knowledge, and whatever that the officers have—with respect to
country conditions, with respect to various international conventions. All
these things are important in influencing their decision-making.
...
* Mr.
Sanjiv Kumar
: As far as the issue of resources is concerned, there could be a system
in which incentives are given to the people who are working very well, are
integrated economically, and contribute to the economy if they are brought
into the mainstream. Everybody's aware that there are thousands and
thousands of people who are living illegally in the country, and they are
not part of the economy the way they could be. They can surely contribute
to the tax system and everything if they're part of the system. So we
should find some incentive system.
The real issue is to let us regularize the people who are here, have been
here for years and years, and will be here for many years, so that they
are part of the economy, and then set our system so that we don't need
amnesty or regularization or something like that in the future, so that
our system improves--not only improves, but looks improved. Everybody
has talked about the Palestinian case. There are thousands of such cases.
There are two brothers, one is deported and one is accepted. That clearly
shows that the system is not working and there are real problems. |