Mr. Speaker, my question is for the minister of immigration. A number of persecuted Turkish Kurds have reached Canada and have been granted refugee status.
The minister should be aware that being a Kurd in Turkey often involves the use of false papers. Two of these refugees were caught using false papers by Turkish authorities. Even though they are now safely in Canada, the immigration department is charging them $1,000 each as a rehabilitation fee for having used these documents.
How does the minister justify that fee to penniless refugees whose only crime was to use false papers to escape repression in their own country?