Human smuggling into Canada up?

Canada and the United States share a 6,400-kilometre border, of which large parts are left unguarded.  Where authorities did conduct patrols in 2011, they intercepted a total of 487 migrants as they were being smuggled into Canada from the U.S.  This represents a 58% increase over 2010.

By contrast, 360 people were caught being spirited into the U.S. by smugglers, a slight drop over the previous year.

The figures are contained in the 2012 Integrated Border Enforcement Team threat assessment report, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees , says it is unclear if in effect the numbers reflect a rise in human smuggling or a surge in efforts by authorities to nab criminals involved in the transport of persons.  Regardless, they numbers paint a worrying picture, says Gloria Nafziger, refugee coordinator at Amnesty International.  “It reflects the desperation of people.”  She notes that migrants who contract the services of smugglers run the risk of becoming trafficked.

Nafziger and Dench argue one of the aggravating factors is the 2004 Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement.  It forces migrants arriving at land border ports of entry to make a refugee claim in the first country they enter.  “For many refugees, coming through the U.S. was really the only viable way to get here,” says Dench.

After two ships – the MV Ocean Lady and the MV Sun Sea – carrying a total of nearly 600 Tamil migrants arrived in Vancouver in 2009 and 2010, the federal government attempted to crack down on human smuggling with the tabling of Bill C-31, amending the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Sections of the law were struck down earlier this year however by a British Columbia Supreme Court judge who ruled the legislation was too broad.  NDP immigration critic Jinny Sims felt the move was justified.  “Bill C-31 does actually nothing to address the real issues of human smuggling but does more to punish the victims of the smugglers in the first place,” she told The Huffington Post in January.

As a result of the Supreme Court decision, charges were dropped against four men accused of bringing migrants into Canada illegally aboard the MV Ocean Lady.