The queue jumpers. (Immigration--Illegals).

There are many, many people who don't want to wait out the long approval process to become landed immigrants in Canada. It's a risky business and from time to time a container is opened in a port somewhere to reveal the bodies of people who didn't survive the trip.

There are the well-known stories of Asian would-be immigrants arriving off the B.C. coast in rusting and totally un-seaworthy tubs.

More recently, a group of 10 Lithuanians tried to slip ashore in Nova Scotia. They claimed to be stranded on an uninhabited island 200 kilometres east of Halifax after a storm damaged the boat they were on. But the boat and its two-man crew were nowhere to be found causing eyebrows to be raised and the Lithuanians to be sent home.

Others get in through arranged marriages, phony refugee claims, false papers, posing as "tourists" who decide they like it so much they want to stay, and by other forms of lies and deceits including the bribery of officials.

There's a global network of people smugglers. They are attracted by the big money that can be made out of exploiting some of the world's most desperate citizens. According to one estimate, smuggling humans around the world is a $7 billion-a-year business. One United Nations immigration official says we're seeing a global transition of organized criminals that deal in drugs and arms smuggling now turning to this new area of human smuggling. Some say the illegal immigrant business has become more attractive to syndicates because the penalties for human smuggling are less severe than those for drug trafficking.

According to one report, smugglers who used to organize groups of two or three dozen people for bus, truck, or small boat transport are packing hundreds of people into dilapidated fishing and cargo ships for treacherous sea journeys. And, these hazardous schemes have become routine in the waters between Turkey and destinations in Greece, Italy, and as far west as the French Riviera. Turkey has been a major commercial link to Europe for centuries, and Turkish officials report huge increases in the incidence of human smuggling: with water on three sides and more than 8,000 kilometres of coastline, the country has remote inlets and busy industrial dockyards that are havens for loading illegal immigrants. The number of illegals detained by Turkish authorities in 1999 was about 48,000; in 2000, it sky-rocketed to 94,000.

Meanwhile, officials in Greece arrested almost 260,000 illegal immigrants in 2000, 439% more than the previous year. Both countries attribute the increase to a combination of greater policing efforts and a growing number of immigrants. They also estimate that those captured could be only about one-third of the total; the majority of illegal immigrants go undetected.

While the most dramatic and dangerous method of illegal entry is by boat, most migrants come by air--those heading for Canada buy passports and board planes for Europe or South America. Then, they transfer to planes bound for Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver. The passports often are torn up in flight and flushed down a toilet. When they land they tell Canadian immigration officials that they want to claim refugee status.

However illegal immigrants arrive, they are housed, fed, given medical care, provided with legal counsel and allowed to plead their rights to stay here as refugees. This, despite the fact they are most likely economic migrants rather than political refugees. After declaring refugee status, many disappear as soon as they're released to await their hearing. In 1998, for example, more than 75% of all Chinese refugee claims were abandoned because of no-shows.

These abandoned claims give some idea of how many illegal immigrants slip through the system: in 1989, 44 claims were abandoned; by 1998, the number had risen to more than 4,000 a year. Between 1989 and 2000, more than 25,000 claims were abandoned.

While Canadians are generous toward legal refugees, they don't look favourably upon those who take the illegal route. As Jeffrey Simpson pointed out in his Globe and Mail column in 1999 after the boatloads of 599 Chinese migrants arrived on the coast of British Columbia: "All affected federal departments in British Columbia have been stretched by the bogus refugee arrivals. The Coast Guard has run up extra costs. The (Immigration and Refugee Board) has asked for more money.

"All lawyers' bills are being paid by legal aid, meaning less money for other legal-aid requirements. The province has incurred additional costs for detention in provincial institutions. Legitimate refugees in the IRB's queue are being told to wait for two or three more months while the board accelerates processing of the (Chinese) migrants. The potentially legitimate are waiting for the certainly illegitimate."

By January 2001, only 24 of these migrants had been granted refugee status, but the human trafficking from China continued to be described as brisk. About 300 Chinese migrants entered Canada surreptitiously in the previous four months, on their way to the U.S., despite assurances from Chinese authorities in September 1999 that China would crack down on the human-smuggling rings.

A report prepared by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1999, concluded that smuggling migrants is so lucrative in Canada that rival criminal gangs set aside their differences to share safe houses, illegal travel documents, and ways of sneaking people into the country.

An International Crime Threat Assessment report, was prepared in 2000 by the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Customs Service and several other security agencies. The report described Canada as a "gateway" for Chinese criminal gangs involved in a wide range of illicit activity, including human smuggling.

In March 2002, the RCMP investigated allegations that a people-smuggling ring was reusing false Canadian immigration documents to bring Afghans and Pakistanis to North America. An informant told police an organized-crime ring operating out of Cornwall, Ont., and Montreal recycles the identity documents and sells them for up to $2,500 to illegal immigrants.

A year earlier, Canadian, U.S., and Korean police infiltrated a multi-million-dollar flesh cartel. They arrested more than two dozen people in the three countries for allegedly smuggling hundreds of Koreans and Chinese from Asia through Canada to the United States. A few months earlier, in December 2000, a senior Canadian immigration officer said that a staggering number of refugees, mostly from Argentina, had sought political asylum in Canada in previous months. The four border crossings in Fort Erie and Niagara Falls saw a 400% increase in the number of refugee claims since 1998. Argentine authorities investigating the unprecedented leap in claims suspected a former police chief was arranging forged travel documents for people wanting to seek asylum in Canada or the United States.

Even the lowest estimates of the people living in Canada illegally place the number in the tens of thousands. Some experts suggest there could be as many as 200,000. Many immigration lawyers, social workers, and politicians say these people should be released from their underground existence under an amnesty program. That would mean offering everybody already here illegally a pardon and the right to stay if they come forward. Others say no, they're queue-jumpers who undermine the integrity of Canada's generous immigration system. A general amnesty in 1973 brought forward 18,000 people. In 1986, the government sought to clear a backlog of refugee claimants who had been in the system for years. About 85% of the 28,000 eligible people became permanent residents.

Some see the U.S. as more forgiving of illegal immigrants, offering generous amnesties periodically. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service estimates that five million illegal immigrants live in the country. It recently extended a program that could allow as many as 640,000 illegal immigrants to apply for green cards if a spouse or relative vouches for them and they pay a $1,000 (U.S.) fee.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. Canada accepts more immigrants per capita than any other Western nation: in 2000, more than 226,000 legitimate immigrants mere allowed into Canada. Critics say illegal immigrants are the result of a system that discriminates against blue-collar workers and the poor in favour of wealthy, highly educated immigrants. Discuss this view, and outline the qualifications you think should be required of immigrants.

2. At the same time that Chinese migrants were arriving on Canada's west coast in September 1999, The Saskatoon Star Phoenix newspaper said the problem is not the new migrants but Canada's reaction to them. The paper cautioned against abandoning our democratic principles as well as the migrants. "As a nation, we have historically overreacted to immigration from China and the Orient. This has led to some of the darkest episodes in Canada's existence as a democracy." The article refers to the old head tax on Chinese immigrants, the denial of citizenship for Chinese and Japanese people in 1902, the rejection of a shipload of Sikhs in 1914, and the ban on immigration from Asia in 1923. Research these periods in our history and discuss how you think they should have been handled.

China has become Canada's top source of illegal immigrants. In 1998
about 1,365 Chinese citizens were smuggled into the country. Most
come by air. Canadian authorities are concerned that many illegal
immigrants have criminal records (and wouldn't get through
legal channels). Between 1994 and 2002, China issued nearly 400
international arrest warrants, but only 210 suspects have been
returned. China estimates that 20 to 30 corrupt officials flee abroad
every year with stolen public funds, but only about five are extradited
to China. One Chinese newspaper reported that $52 billion was sent out
of China from 1997 to 1999 alone, and much of it was public money stolen
by corrupt officials and transferred abroad. The report also said that
many believe Canada has become a favourite destination for Chinese
criminals.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

FACT FILE

While illegal Chinese immigration is a major concern in the United States, the worst problem by far is the illegal entry along the southwestern border of people from Mexico and Central America.

In 2000, the RCMP's immigration and passport unit investigated 768 smuggling cases and seized 966 counterfeit travel documents with a street value of $13 million.

In June 2002, Muralitharan Nadarajah, an alleged Sri Lankan leader of a Tamil guerrilla organization suspected of being sent to Canada to run criminal gangs in the Toronto area, was ordered deported: Mr. Nadarajah came to Canada under a false identity in August 1998.

LIFE AFTER LANDING

Life for many illegal immigrants isn't the paradise they expected: often they become little more than slaves until they've paid the high price of their fare, which can be as much as $50,000 U.S. As a captive work force, they are easily exploited and they live in constant fear of being caught. It's not uncommon for them to be forced to work in illegal activities (often drugs or prostitution) to pay their heavy debts to the smugglers.

Critics say the real criminals are not the migrants but those who profit from taking advantage of them--the smugglers and the companies that use their slave labour.

TARGETING SMUGGLERS

Canada isn't alone in its battle against human smuggling. It's become a worldwide problem that has prompted both Australia and the United States to toughen legislation, increase surveillance, or speed up the removal process for those without valid refugee claims. But both countries agree that the illegal immigrants are not the main culprits; the smugglers are, and the penalties have become stiffer. In Australia, for example, a new criminal classification was created in 1999 for those who organize the illegal entry of groups of five or more people: a conviction carries a 20-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $220,000. Also, in September 2001, Australia tightened its border regulations to crack down on human smuggling and to prevent refugees from jumping the queue. Australia says it will take in up to 85,000 new migrants in 2002 and another 12,000 refugees, but the government insists on doing it by the rules. The illegal immigrants are not turned away: they enter a refugee-claims process, but they're held in detention centres until their claims are heard. The process usually takes about a year, and those refused refugee status can appeal.

Critics still argue that taking a tougher stand undermines genuine refugees' rights because smuggling is sometimes their only option.

Websites

Australia's Immigration Policy--http://www.minister.
immi.gov.au/index.htm

Centre for Immigration
Studies (U.S.)--http://www.
cis.org/

International Centre for Migration
Policy Development--http://www.icmpd.org

RCMP--http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/html/imm.htm