PRESS RELEASE
Federal Government attention is temporarily focussed on the Kyoto Accord whose implementation begins today, February 16. However, refugee issues continue to plague Canada's Department of Citizenship and Immigration and, like Canada's mass immigration policy, will contribute substantially to future environmental problems.
A recent report in The Asia Pacific Post, “Couple Flees To B.C. After $30 Million Swindle In China”, announces the arrival in Canada of Deng Bowen and Zhang Xiuzhi. “Like others before them, (they) planned their escape to Canada even as they schemed to rip off their friends and business associates in China”.
“Sources in the Lower Mainland's (B.C.) Chinese community told The Asia Pacific Post that the couple have bought property in Vancouver and are believed to be in B.C. The Guangzhou-based New Express said Deng and his wife Zhang, both in their 40's, started the scam in April, 2002. They circulated a fabricated picture of a Chinese state leader posing with a woman they claimed was their godmother.
“The Hong Kong based South China Morning Post in an opinion piece said it's never been easier to be a con artist in China. 'As long as one says the magic words–claiming to be the son or daughter of a senior mainland official–businessmen and local officials will line up to offer money to curry favour, no matter how whimsical the fabrication'.”
Deng and Zhang said the woman in the picture “could get quotas for scarce cigarettes (from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation) which could be sold to tobacco firms in Guangdong”, the New Express reported.
“The couple claimed long-term supply contracts had been signed with those tobacco sales firms and investors could buy the quotas and cash in with monthly returns of 8% or more.”
According to The Asia Pacific Post , “They join a growing number of Asian fugitives seeking refuge behind a soft Canadian system which allows them to wage long drawn out court battles to avoid deportation.”
Among the more notorious are the following:
(1) Lai Changxing, “the mastermind behind a massive smuggling case in southern Xiamen City, Fujian province, which involved goods worth billions of dollars”.
(2) “A trio of Chinese bankers who fled to B.C. after helping embezzle US$ 485 Million in the Bank of China scandal that damaged the communist nation's banking system”.
(3) Rakesh Saxena, “Thailand's most wanted man” who “is charged in Thailand with embezzling Can$ 88 Million from the Bangkok Bank of Commerce, which led to a 1996 run on the bank's deposits, causing its collapse and the Asian financial crisis”.
(4) “A fugitive couple from the Phillippines–Faustino Chingkoe and Gloria Eng Chingkoe. They are wanted by Manilla authorities for a multi-billion peso tax scam. The Chingkoes have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars buying up real estate in Richmond since they moved to Canada.”
“Senior civil servants and refugee experts have pointed out that one of the main causes of the refugee mess is the quasi-judicial system,” says Dan Murray of Immigration Watch Canada.
“This feature has encouraged hundreds of thousands to come. This is not a small issue. According to former Immigration Minister Judy Sgro, over 40,000 applied for refugee status in 2003. This is an average of over 100 every day. The year 2003 was a typical year.
“As critics have repeatedly pointed out, the refugee system is an alternate, mostly fraudulent immigration route into Canada. The recent Harjit Singh case is one of the 500,000+ cases which have occurred since 1989. Refugee claimants (most of whom are not real refugees) believe that if they use the quasi-judicial system long enough, the government will get tired and grant them amnesty. Experiences in the 1980's have shown that amnesties (euphemistically named 'administrative reviews”) cause more and more people to apply for refugee status.”
“The alternative is that the federal government take control of this situation by doing away with the quasi-judicial system and instituting a quick 'Accept or Reject' method. This would be administered by civil servants and deal with all refugee claimants.”
END OF PRESS RELEASE
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