Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak to this motion.
Before I start, let me tell the hon. member, in all fairness, that the minister has been very active in this area. It is important for members opposite to know that we have a policy. When boats come to our shores, we detect them, we apprehend and detain the people and then they are put through the process of adjudication to determine if they should be charged with criminal activity.
Canadians are concerned about a growing international trade in human smuggling and trafficking. This motion helps to focus our attention on that, but it also focuses attention on our strategy of penalizing those who profit from human suffering.
It has become evident that a global movement of people has been accelerating. In spite of international efforts to eradicate poverty, the gap between have and have not countries is fostering a new wave of people who are desperately seeking the means to establish themselves in North America. The United Nations estimates that 125 million people are currently outside their home countries in search of an improved economic situation or a more stable political environment.
In conjunction with this international reality there is a growing effort by organized crime to exploit these people.
Canada is not the only country that is facing this problem. The United Nations estimates that annually four million people are smuggled across borders by a global business valued at $9 billion a year. Australia alone has seen 2,500 hopeful migrants arrive on 70 boats this year. Over 1,000 of these people were on 12 boats that arrived on Australia's coast in November.
The boats that arrived on our west coast during the summer are the most recent and visible manifestations in Canada of a larger international problem. Moreover, there is every reason to believe that people smuggling and trafficking will increase unless Canada, in concert with other nations, adopts effective measures to discourage it. The question is: Which measures?
It is important that we not react in alarm or haste. We must avoid simplistic responses which may compromise Canada's humanitarian traditions and its obligations under the Geneva convention. Such was the case with a senator's private bill introduced last month in the House. The bill proposed the use of legislation to direct away from Canadian waters a ship carrying suspected migrants. A measure to turn boats back, which recalls some of the darker moments in Canada's past, would run the risk of denying protection to people who could be determined, through our hearings, to be genuine refugees.
Some 60 years ago Canada, among other countries, turned back a ship full of Jewish refugees seeking to escape Nazi Germany. That these people were forced to return on the St. Louis to Germany and the horrors that awaited them remains a shameful episode in our past. In 1914, 376 East Indian immigrants were forcefully confined for two months aboard the liner Komagata Maru as it lay off Vancouver harbour. The B.C. supreme court eventually upheld a federal exclusion order and the boat, escorted by a Canadian warship, was forced to sail back to Calcutta. On arrival 29 people were shot and 20 eventually died. We must learn from these and similar mistakes.
Such measures would not deal with the root of the problem, which is the international trade in people smuggling. However, in my view, the motion currently before the House is closer to the mark because it focuses more directly on the real culprits, those who profit from this hateful crime.
In so doing, the motion anticipates but one aspect of a broader range of measures that the government is currently considering. What is needed to deal with this international problem is a multifaceted approach adopted by Canada and other nations in the context of an international solution.
For example, Canada is taking an active role in the development of two UN protocols concerning the smuggling of migrants and trafficking in women and children. A G-8 senior expert group on transnational organized crime is also addressing these issues. In this regard the Department of Citizenship and Immigration chairs a G-8 subgroup on alien smuggling and trafficking in human beings.
In addition, efforts are being made by Canada to deal with people smuggling and trafficking at the source by co-operating with other countries, including China, to combat crimes relating to the violation of border controls and illegal immigration.
Canada is committed to strengthening its worldwide intelligence and tracking systems to see that smugglers and traffickers are intercepted. These actions are proving effective. Chinese authorities intercepted six migrant ships this year, four of which are believed to have been destined for Canada, and over 6,000 people lacking proper documentation were prevented from getting into Canada last year alone.
However, the government is fully conscious that additional measures are necessary. In January of this year the government proposed several legislative directions to improve the integrity and effectiveness of our refugee determination system. These proposals are being reviewed to determine what additional measures should be taken.
We already have among the severest penalties in the world for people trafficking, up to 10 years of imprisonment and fines of up to $500,000. We are using these tools to prosecute the crew of the second boat to arrive in British Columbia last summer.
As the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration has already signalled, we are reviewing a number of options to deal with migrant smuggling and trafficking in consultation with other governments and other departments and agencies of our own.
The minister has outlined a series of proposals which could include penalties for human trafficking at least as tough as our penalties for drug trafficking. We are also looking at taking more aggressive steps to seize property used in the course of such operations. The minister has also offered safety to anyone who will testify against smugglers as a way to keep smugglers from abusing our system.
Another proposal being considered is the imposition of a screening mechanism for criminality and security considerations at the very beginning of the refugee determination process to identify criminals earlier and prevent them from using the system for reasons other than protection.
We are also looking at clarifying our three existing grounds for detention to better deal with people smuggling and trafficking in Canada.
The Immigration Act currently permits three grounds for detention: inability to establish identity, reasonable concern for public safety, and warranted fear of flight.
The minister has proposed consolidating the refugee determination process to make it faster but fair.
Citizenship and immigration officials are currently consulting with their colleagues in the Department of Justice to determine, along with other anti-smuggling initiatives, if minimum sentences will be an effective deterrent against traffickers and whether such sentences will be in accord with the charter of rights and freedoms.
In the meantime, we have a commitment from the Immigration and Refugee Board to accelerate refugee hearings for those who arrived on our west coast this summer, providing a fair but accelerated process to determine who are genuine refugees and who are not. Legitimate refugees among them will be allowed to stay in Canada. The rest will be removed as quickly as possible.
Canadians can now be proud of our international record of tolerance and compassion toward genuine refugees from all parts of the world.
Over the decades since the 1950s we have honoured our commitment to the Geneva convention by welcoming and protecting Eastern Europeans, Asians from Uganda, Indochinese refugees and South Americans fleeing persecution, among many thousands of others.
This attitude of compassion continues, as shown by Canadians opening their hearts and their homes to the Kosovar refugee families earlier this year.
People who arrive in Canada seeking protection are now entitled to fair hearings to determine refugee status under our laws. Our sense of compassion and fairness is enshrined in our constitution, our charter of rights and freedoms, our immigration and refugee laws and our own judiciary.
Canadians will not be taken advantage of by those who would traffic in human misery.