Madam Chair, my questions will deal mostly with immigration.
I sit on the Citizenship and Immigration committee which is currently examining the issue of undocumented refugees. We are told that the number of refugee claimants has been dropping steadily since 2001 when the government doubled the amounts allocated for interdiction officers in foreign missions.
Would you tell us how these officers working abroad are trained? How do they determine if a case involves human trafficking?
Following the decline in refugee claims, in 2004, Canada and the United States signed an agreement on safe third countries. A number of witnesses appearing before the Citizenship and Immigration committee, including NGO representatives, expressed concern about this agreement. They were concerned about the lack of training and knowledge, and the limited information available from the local agency. Of course, statistics show that the safe third country agreement has helped to dramatically reduce the number of refugee claims.
Does this agreement not make those seeking protection from human smugglers and similar traffickers much more vulnerable?