ARCHIVED - Preventing the Abuse of Canada's Immigration System by Human Smugglers

Human smuggling is a criminal enterprise that spans the globe, including here in Canada. Human smugglers facilitate, for a profit, the transportation of individuals migrating to Canada illegally. Human smugglers have also made a lucrative business of counseling smuggled persons to claim asylum in the country to which they are smuggled.

In particular, human smuggling networks in Southeast Asia are active and are targeting Canada, among other countries. This is evidenced by the arrival in Canada of two vessels in 2009 and 2010, the Ocean Lady and the Sun Sea, respectively.  Human smuggling undermines Canada's security. Large scale arrivals make it challenging to quickly investigate whether those who arrive, including the smugglers themselves, pose risks to Canada.

Under the Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act, our government is cracking down on human smugglers by:

• Enabling the Minister of Public Safety to declare the existence of a human smuggling event, and make those involved subject to the Act's measures;
• Making it easier to prosecute human smugglers;
• Imposing mandatory minimum prison sentences on convicted smugglers; and
• Holding ship owners and operators to account for use of their ships in human smuggling operations.

Under the Act, our government is ensuring the safety and security of Canadians by:

• Establishing the mandatory detention of participants for up to one year, or until a decision is reached by the Immigration and Refugee Board, whichever comes sooner, in order to allow for the determination of identity, admissibility and illegal activity;
• Preventing those who come to Canada as part of a human smuggling event from applying for permanent resident status for a period of five years, should they successfully obtain refugee status; and
• Preventing individuals from sponsoring family members for five years.

Furthermore, our government is also reducing the attraction of coming to Canada by way of an illegal human smuggling operation by:

• Ensuring the health benefits participants receive are not more generous than those received by the Canadian public; and
• Terminating the protected person status of those who return to their country of origin for a vacation, or no longer demonstrate they need Canada's protection.

In addition, our Government is detecting and deterring human smuggling overseas through the appointment of a Special Advisor on Human Smuggling and Illegal Migration. Since his appointment in fall 2010, Mr. Ward P.D. Elcock has met with officials in Australia and Thailand to discuss cooperation to combat human smuggling. Mr. Elcock has also met with officials from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration and has attended a meeting of Bali Process member states where discussion focused on the development of a regional cooperation framework as a coordinated and comprehensive approach to refugees and irregular movements in Southeast Asia.

Date modified:

2015-12-02