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Treatment of Chinese claimants

Resolution number
10
Whereas
  1. Citizenship and Immigration Canada decided to detain en masse migrants from the People's Republic of China arriving at Canada's West Coast;
  2. CIC compounded its errors by detaining the majority of the migrants in Prince George, several hundred kilometres from counsel and the IRB;
  3. Consequently some of these Chinese migrants continue to be denied full access to counsel and right to choice of counsel;
  4. These Chinese migrants continue to be detained without individual assessment and based upon general and stereotypical profile of refugee claimants from Fujian Province of China;
  5. The minors within these groups have been handcuffed and strip-searched and there are allegations that some were physically assaulted;
Therefore be it resolved

That the CCR:

  1. Request that CIC and the IRB ensure that Canada:
      a) Does not detain refugee claimants based on profiling, stereotyping and public annoyance;
    b) Does not detain claimants in places without ready access to professional counsel and the IRB;
    c) Otherwise ensures for all claimants irrespective of publicity given their arrival, full due process and procedural fairness, including counsel of choice.
  2. Call for an independent inquiry into CIC's handling of arrivals of Chinese migrants.
Working Group
Inland Protection