Uighurs, Gypsies and Mexicans -- what's the difference?

Agent 78 takes me task for having written disapprovingly of the Chinese treatment of Uighur refugees (see previous articles) who she says are, after all, Chinese citizens and "splittists" who want to separate their homeland from the glorious Chinese People's s Republic. (The "treatment" involves the sudden injection of rather large pieces of lead.)

She makes the point that Canada has just announced that it is going to step up the deportation of refugees -- notably gypsies and Mexicans -- to the place from which they came. I've written about this recently too. So what's the difference, she asks?

In the first place, those Canada is deporting are not true refugees, according to the Geneva convention, at all. They are not seeking political asylum, for politics has nothing to do with the reasons why they left Mexico or the Czech republic or wherever. 99% of them are economic migrants, seeking to get their noses in the huge trough that is the Canadian welfare system. That's all.

Secondly, the refugees being deported from Canada are not Canadians. They are being sent back to their countries of origin. As my earlier post today explains, the Uighurs are being returned to the country (China) in which they were born. They are Chinese citizens, even though they may not like being so. China has already executed dozens of what it says are its own citizens, and will likely deal with these returnees in the same way.

Which brings us to the final point. The few "refugees" who Canada succeeds in deporting to Mexico or Jamaica or Nigeria or wherever do not face being deprived of not only their liberty but their lives. So far as we know, not one deportee from Canada has been executed by their country of origin.

Please dear readers keep these things in mind as you ready about the US and Canadian governments cozying up to China...in the interests of better relations and improving the balance-of-trade figures of course. I'd ask you to boycott Chinese-made goods but you'd die, starving and naked. Beats dying at the wrong end of a rifle though.

Canada finally closing her legs

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) released its annual report on Friday. Canadians used to seeing the numbers of refugees and asylum-seekers go up and up and up will welcome the news that the number of refugees actually granted asylum in Canada dropped dramatically in the latest reporting year.

Successful claims by refugees already in Canada fell to less than half of what it was under the Gliberals. Give Mr. Harpoon full marks on this one. The new stats show the impact of his government's efforts to overhaul Canada's immigration system [is dis a system? ed.] at long last.

This past summer the government imposed visa restrictions on Czechs and Mexicans as part of a broader attempt to block bogus refugee claims filed from within Canada. A spokesman, Alykhan Velshi [what part of Ireland is he from? ed.] noted that Mexico was the top source of asylum claims in 2008, yet the Immigration and Refugee Board rejected 90% of those claims.

As for the Czechs, the real target there is gypsies, or "Roma" as they prefer to be called now. Problems with these people, whose nomadic "culture" rejects honesty, education and even cleanliness, have already been noted in Toronto schools and social housing.

Predictably, the bleeding-heart liberals have already complained that Canada is shirking her responsibility to take in everyone and everything in the world. (Back in the dark ages before WWII expressions like "the scum of the earth" were used, but of course no-one would dare use such a phrase now.)

The likes of NDP MP Olivia Chow and "Dame" Janet Dench, head of a self-appointed watchdog group known as the Canadian Council for Refugees, say the numbers show a lack of compassion and a potential disregard of the government's obligations under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Says Dame Dench, "It's a very bleak, bleak picture for refugees and Canadians that [sic] care about refugees." All two dozen of them.

CIC's report shows the projected number of refugees who will be accepted from within Canada will remain near the lower 2008 levels both this year and next. Mr. Velshi said the report's projections do not take into account the immigration minister's plans for a new system that will weed out “bogus” claims made in Canada more quickly while still respecting the Charter.

“Clearly our system is being abused,” Mr. Velshi said. “[The minister] plans to reform our asylum system.” Not before time!