Asia-Pacific

Canada vows to crack down on human smugglers

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-10-22 09:32

VANCOUVER - Canada vowed Thursday to crack down on human smugglers who seek to abuse Canada's immigration system.

Related readings:  Anger boils over in the melting pot over immigrants  Brooklyn offers a 'green' way  US returns 4 illegal immigrants to Cuba  150,000 illegal immigrants in Europe to be repatriated to Serbia

Speaking in front of the illegal migrant vessel Ocean Lady which brought 76 Tamil asylum seekers to Canada last year in Vancouver, Vic Toews, minister of public safety, and Jason Kenney, minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism introduced the Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act tabled Thursday in the House of Commons and said the proposed legislation would strengthen Canada's ability to prosecute human smugglers, deter those that seek to jump the queue, prevent human smuggling operations before they leave for Canada and maintain the integrity and fairness of Canada's immigration system.

"Our government is taking action to prevent the abuse of Canada' s immigration system by human smugglers,"said Minister Toews." The legislation introduced today will send a clear message: Canada opens its doors to those who work hard and play by the rules while cracking down on those who seek to take advantage of our generosity and abuse our fair and welcoming immigration system."

The legislation is introduced to ensure law enforcement have the tools they need to crack down on human smugglers. The new measures in the proposed legislation include making it easier to prosecute human smugglers, imposing mandatory prison sentences on convicted human smugglers, and holding ship owners and operators to account for use of their ships in human smuggling operations.

The act is introduced also to help to ensure the safety and security of Canadian communities by ensuring mandatory detention of illegal migrants for up to one year to allow for the determination of identity, inadmissibility and illegal activity.

"The measures we introduced today send a clear message to individuals overseas thinking about smuggling people and to those people thinking about using human smugglers, don't do it,"said Minister Kenney."This action will help to prevent the abuse of Canada's immigration system by human smugglers, while allowing us to continue offering protection to the world's most vulnerable."