Mr. Speaker, the Canada Border Services Agency, CBSA, responds as follows.
With regard to migration integrity officers, in response to (a), there are currently 45 migration integrity officers, MIOs.
In response to (b), the Canada Border Services Agency, CBSA, does not use the term migration integrity personnel. In most cases, however, each MIO has a dedicated locally engaged migration integrity assistant, MIA. Depending on the local environment, the classification level of the assistant and the nature of the work at the specific location, the MIA will provide program support ranging from responding to general questions about entry requirements up to providing on-site advice to airlines at the boarding gate.
In response to (c), major activities of the MIO can be broken into four areas as follows:
The control activities include providing advice and document expertise to airlines and providing training on documents and irregular migration to airline and host government.
The intelligence reporting activities cover the areas of irregular migration, people smuggling and trafficking; program integrity; organized crime; war crimes and human rights; national security; and anti-fraud trends.
The international liaison activities include promoting international cooperation and partnerships with foreign missions, agencies, host country officials, and key interest groups in the region of responsibility; and representing Canada in bilateral and multilateral discussions and negotiations involving anti-fraud, interdiction, control, intelligence and security.
The anti-fraud area of activities includes being a source of expertise on documents and program integrity; providing training, guidance and support to Canadian mission staff on document fraud and irregular migration; and data reporting.
The emphasis given to a particular area depends on the specific local requirements.
In response to (d), MIOs report to the CBSA Immigration Intelligence Branch. Many MIOs receive Canadian Security Intelligence Service, CSIS, and Royal Canadian Mounted Police, RCMP, briefings prior to posting. CSIS and RCMP are viewed as consumers of general MIO reporting on country events and trends in irregular migration. MIOs have no formal relationships with international intelligence agencies. Their principal international points of contact are with other diplomatic personnel, as well as with host government police, immigration and border agencies having responsibilities for immigration control matters.
In response to (e), for the period from January 1, 2003 to December 11, 2003, the Canada Border Services Agency, CBSA, did not exist as a distinct agency.
The CBSA was created by an order in council on December 12, 2003, from the transfer of components of the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. No complaints have been brought against MIOs for the period of December 12, 2003 to December 31, 2003, nor were any complaints brought against MIOs prior to the creation of the CBSA.
In response to (f), in addition to basic immigration officer or foreign service immigration officer training which includes elements of document examination and fraud detection, all MIOs attend a three week specialized training course which includes one week of intensive document examination and fraud detection training. At the end of the document training each officer must pass an exam by jury.
There is substantially more emphasis given to document training than given by counterparts. United Kingdom immigration service airline liaison officers receive one day of document briefing; the United States currently intends to provide only a half day briefing on documents under its immigrant security initiative deployments overseas.
The answer to (g) is none. As the MIO is not an enforcement field officer, no protective clothing is required in the performance of his or her duties.
In response to (h), MIOs currently report to Control Division, Immigration Intelligence Branch of the CBSA. The CBSA is a new agency and although it is reviewing its structure, there is no existing plan to amend the present reporting relationship for MIOs.
In response to (i), The CBSA was created by an order in council on December 12, 2003, from the transfer of components of the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. No contracts have been awarded relating to the migration integrity function for the period of December 12, 2003 to March 10, 2004.
In response to (j), the MIOs are posted in 39 strategic locations overseas in Africa and the Middle East, the western hemisphere, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
