Syrian refugees ‘relatively low security threat’
Contradicts Trump team’s imperatives
TORONTO • An intelligence report by Canada’s immigration enforcement branch found little evidence of security concerns about Syrians, contrary to U. S. President Donald Trump’s decision to ban citizens of the country.
“Syrian refugees represent a relatively low security threat,” the report concluded. “The majority of fleeing Syrians are women and children, with men between the ages of 18 and 59 making up 22 per cent of that population.”
A declassified version of the Canada Border Services Agency report, titled “Potential National Security Concerns with Syrian Nationals,” was obtained by the National Post under the Access to Information Act.
Syria is among the seven countries whose citizens Trump has temporarily banned from entering the United States. A f ederal judge has blocked the travel ban and an appeals court on Thursday decided to uphold the stay.
But Canada’s experience suggests the concerns may be misplaced: Fewer than five of the almost 40,000 Syrians who arrived during the first 14 months of the Liberal government’s resettlement plan have been referred f or deportation proceedings, officials said.
Even before the current influx, Syrian refugees were deemed a minimal risk by the CBSA’s Intelligence Operation and Analysis Division, which looked into the issue in December 2015 after the Liberals took office.
Duri n g the election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had promised to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada within months, prompting t he CBSA to prepare a study for senior executives and operational managers.
“The government of Canada has promised to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2015, with a further 15,000 to arrive by the end of February 2016.
“This has raised national security concerns,” the report said.
The CBSA’s examination of deportation proceedings dating back to January 2010 found only a handful involv- ing the 11,654 Syrian nationals who had entered Canada as temporary residents, immigrants and refugees.
The majority of Syrian nationals with inadmissibility reports ( the first step to deportation) were criminals. Eighteen had been convicted of crimes punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment.
The most common offences were fraud, theft, robbery and drug trafficking, the report said.
Only one was reported f or r easons of security, while one was reported for war crimes. The report was heavily redacted so it was impossible to tell whether the list was complete but the CBSA found little cause for concern, rating the risk “low.”
The e xperience s i nce then appears to have borne t hat out — al t hough a 39- year- old Syrian refugee was arrested last weekend after several teenage girls complained they had been sexually assaulted at the West Edmonton Mall Waterpark.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada would not disclose exactly how many Syrian refugees were considered “inadmissible.”
Citing “privacy considerations,” officials said they “suppress” such data. But they said it was “fewer than five” and that “the issue that resulted in inadmissibility proceedings related to a loss of documents whilst in transit, rather than any security or criminal concerns.”
The figures cover the period from Nov. 4, 2015 to Feb. 5, 2017.
The rise of ISIL in Syria and its role in planning and inspiring terrorist attacks in the West has fuelled caution over refugees from the country.
But North America is a much harder target for ISIL than Europe, said Prof. Stephanie Carvin, who specializes in security at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs in Ottawa.
“The kind of screening programs that Canada and the United States have in place, plus the luxury of being separated by multiple thousands of miles of ocean, it just puts us in a completely different position,” she said.
The terrorist threat has also evolved in recent years from extremists who arrive from abroad to conduct attacks to attempts to radicalize those already here and convince them to attack. “That’s going to be much easier.”