A scan of the front page of the CBSA's report, obtained by CBC News
The largest news broadcaster in Canada, CBC News, has obtained a draft of a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) report on Hungarian refugee claimants, a group which has grown significantly since Canada lifted visa requirements for Hungarian nationals in 2008.
The report describes the findings of Project SARA, a CBSA intelligence study of Hungarian refugee claimants, which include high levels of welfare fraud and petty crime in the community, and indications of a sophisticated operation centred in Hungary that is assisting and coordinating the movement of the claimants.
The draft report says most refugee claimants from Hungary are Romani, an ethnic minority in Europe sometimes referred to as gypsies -though this term is considered derogatory by many Roma organizations. It says that in large part, they seek protection based on claims of being persecuted as an ethnic minority in their country.
According to the report, Canada has grounds to reject Hungarian refugee claimants, as Hungary is a European Union member-state, and as such, its nationals are free to move to any other EU state if they face danger in a particular EU country.
The report concludes that while reinstituting visa requirements for Hungarian nationals would reduce the number of claimants from the country, it is not a long-term solution as those seeking to file claims in Canada can do so from other European countries. It proposes instead a faster claims process for refugee claimants from European Union member-states.
The proposal is similar to a power already granted to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration with the passing of Bill C-31, the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, in late June, which gives the department the discretion to create a list of ‘safe’ countries with democratic governments and reputations for respecting human rights, and process asylum claims by individuals from these countries in 45 days instead of the usual 1,000 days.
The bill also denies claimants from countries on the list a right to appeal their decision, which is often used by asylum seekers to delay their deportation for years.
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How can the Ganadian Government decide that Hungary is a safe country for the Roma? It is true that at this momnet they still belong to the EU, but they do their damnest to remedy that “awful” situation. Daily you could read report on how the current Hungarian Goverment are breaking every rules that the members of the EU countries should abide, and ignore the warnings they receive from Brussel. Only the blinds don’t see what is really happening there.
The Canadian government says that Hungary’s institutions, including free elections, rights to free expression, and independent courts, as well as the low percentage of asylum claimants from Hungary who have their claim accepted by the Immigration and Refugee Board as valid, qualify Hungary as safe.
It also says that Hungarian claimants can apply for refugee status in other EU countries, providing no legitimate justification for asylum claimants traveling all the way to Canada to file a claim.
And that was the reason why Akos Kertész, the well-known Hungarian/Jewish writer, who had been harassed, chased by neofasicts on the street of Budapest, had his honorary citizenship revoked by the Mayor of Budapest, as the result of one of his articles, already granted asylum in Canada? Check your documentations about Hungary a bit closer. Or better, go there yourself and try it on your own skin. Especiall, if you are either jewish or a roma. Good luck.