Queue jumping unwelcome
By Joe Jeerakathil
The StarPhoenix
August 31, 2010
I welcome Canada providing asylum to genuine refugee claimants. The recent arrivals from Sri Lanka aren't refugees but economic migrants.
It is abundantly clear that over the years Sri Lankan Tamils have cleverly used Canada's porous immigration laws and refugee determination procedure to their advantage, as evidenced by the more than 300,000 Tamils living in Ontario.
The recent arrivals raise a host of questions: How did they raise the huge amounts of money for the travel” Who arranged the trip? Where is the ship's captain who benefits financially from the voyage? What about the suspected presence of Tamil Tigers? The government should be seeking answers to these and other questions instead of blindly accepting stories spun by the illegals and their supporters.
It is clear this was a human smuggling operation. Someone is making a lot of money and, at the same time, trying to plant a few more Tiger sympathizers in Canada.
We should not receive these people with open arms when their claims of oppression and persecution in their homeland is phony. Sri Lanka's war is over, and one should not forget that the Tamils, too, bear some responsibility for the continuation of the war and the accompanying suffering.
Allowing these queue jumpers to enter Canada will be a gross injustice to the thousands who have applied for immigration through proper channels and waited patiently for years to have their applications processed.
There is an urgent need to revamp the immigration and refugee determination guidelines to prevent more “refugee” ships docking at our shores, with well-orchestrated tales of persecution and suffering.
Joe Jeerakathil
Saskatoon
