Tough approach to refugees criticized

Australian coalition urges Ottawa to rethink new anti-smuggling bill

Mandatory detention and delayed family reunification won’t deter refugees from arriving en masse at borders, say Australian advocacy groups opposed to Ottawa’s antihuman smuggling bill.

A coalition of Australia’s leading refugee organizations hopes Canada will learn from their experience and reconsider Bill C-4, which is based on the Australian model and currently before Parliament.

“A policy of mandatory detention will be a financial and humanitarian disaster for Canada,” the coalition said in a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The advocates’ concerns echoed comments made earlier by Australian Immigration and Citizenship Secretary Andrew Metcalfe.

“Detaining people for years has not deterred anyone from coming,” Metcalfe told an Australian Senate committee in October.

Australia, with two-third of Canada’s population, introduced the tough measures in 1999. Nonetheless, the number of “unauthorized arrivals” has multiplied to more than 6,000 last year.

Canada’s anti-human smuggling bill would give Immigration Minister Jason Kenney the authority to designate specific refugees as “irregular arrivals.” The designation would allow mandatory arrest and detention for up to a year.

Even if accepted as refugees, they would not be allowed to apply for permanent residency or to sponsor their families for five years.

According to Australian authorities, 134 boats carrying 6,535 people arrived in 2010. (In the same year, 23,000 refugees came to Canada, including the boatload of 500 men, women and children aboard the MV Sun Sea in Vancouver.)

The coalition, led by the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said 4,223 asylum seekers are currently in detention in Australia, including 370 children, at a cost of $137,317 per year per person.

Michael Patton, spokesman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, thanked the Australians’ advice, but said the measures are necessary. “Our government received a strong mandate from Canadians to take fair, reasonable and tough action to prevent the abuse of Canada’s immigration system by human smugglers,” Patton said in an email to the Star.