Ottawa aims at refugee fraudsters

The Canadian government will unveil a sweeping package of reforms Thursday aimed at cracking down on refugee fraudsters, QMI Agency has learned.

Among other things, Ottawa will make it easier to kick out bogus refugees who travel back to the country they claim they are fleeing from for vacations, and will move to restrict the health-care benefits refugees receive in Canada while they wait for their claims to be processed.

Government sources said the package of measures to be announced Thursday is partly a response to stories QMI Agency published earlier this year about abuse of Canada’s immigration and refugee system.

In August, QMI Agency reported on a secret government survey that showed that many Tamils who came to Canada claiming that their lives were in danger in their native Sri Lanka subsequently returned safely to that country. They would then come back to Canada and wait out their refugee claim.

In legislation to be tabled Thursday, the government will make it easier to revoke someone’s refugee status immediately if a refugee claimant heads home for holidays, birthdays or to sponsor other family members.

“It’s a serious problem,” said one government source.

The package of measures to be unveiled Thursday is also a response to “a rising unease among all Canadians about immigration”, the source said, sparked by the arrival in August of a boatload of Tamils claiming refugee status on Canada’s west coast. Many in the government believe that some or most of that group of about 500 Tamils are not bona fide refugees but are simply trying to jump ahead in Canada’s long immigration lineup.

CTV News reported Wednesday that the new legislation will give the federal government new powers to detain migrants and human smugglers for up to one year or until their identity and status is determined. The network also reported that bogus asylum seekers will remain behind bards until they are deported.

QMI Agency has also learned that the government will also announce some regulatory changes so that health-care benefits that refugees receive will be no more generous than those most Canadians receive.

A QMI story in September reported that refugees were getting a health-care plan that included many extras, such as free prescription glasses, that most provincial health care plans do not pay for. The new regulations will mean refugees will no longer get those “extras” for free but will still qualify for the basic health-care coverage of most provincial plans.

Ministers Jason Kenney and Vic Toews - responsible respectively for immigration and public safety - will announce the package of measures in Delta, B.C., Thursday on a dock next to the MV Ocean Lady, the human smuggling ship that arrived on the West Coast last October, The Toronto Sun.