Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome to our guests.
I'm just going to clarify and just give a little bit of a background. There has been some discussion here. All guests or witnesses have talked about detention and how it's unfair and whatever the other cases are. I just want to specify that under this particular bill there is no mandatory detention of all persons for one year. I just want to clarify that. That has come up multiple times, not just in this hour.
Additionally, once someone receives a positive claim with the IRB, bona fide, legitimate refugees who have come here to seek a better way of life will be released from detention. Also, I want to just throw this number out. All three of you here are talking about the same issue, but it's really less than 1% of the people who come to Canada as refugees. I just want to put that on the table as well. Again, until their claim is heard and they are classified as a refugee, they are only asylum claimants. They are not bona fide, legitimate refugees in Canada.
Additionally to that, only asylum claimants whose identifies cannot be established, who are a security risk to Canada—you can recognize the importance as a government to make sure we are detaining people who may be a security risk to Canadians—or are suspected architects of a criminal activity can be held longer under this particular bill.
Having said that, I want to direct my first question to Dr. Stanwick. I commend you for what you do. It's interesting to speak to someone directly who was at the Sun Sea, who processed claimants, who dealt with some of the children there.
I have something here. There were 46 persons under the age of 16, and six were unaccompanied minors, so without parents whatsoever.
I don't want to sound harsh, but in your statement you mentioned that 10% of the people who may come in by irregular arrivals could have security issues. Then, you said the other 90% are probably okay. Can I just ask this question before you answer that question? You suggested two options. One, the child should not be in detention. Under this bill, they will not be in detention. The second option was, instead of sending them into child care or with a guardian, that the parent should be able to be with that child out in a community, integrated, and so forth.
But let me ask you a question. If there's a possibility that 10% of the people who are on that ship or come in by irregular means are one of the people who we can't identify, and they also claim to be the parent of a child, or are the legitimate parents of a child, should they be released into the general population without proper identification? Although you may say it's not a likely situation, without knowing who these people are, without knowing the risks that they may or may not pose to Canadians, in general, or as our nation, as a responsible government, we need to identify who these people are.