Deterring asylum seekers

ANDY LEVY-AJZENKOPF CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS

Canada is actively dissuading Hungarian and Roma asylum-seekers from choosing it as a place of refuge. A month-long $13,000 billboard, bus-shelter and radio ad campaign by the Canadian embassy in Budapest targeting the industrial city of Miskolc – home to the largest Roma population in Hungary – is advising would-be applicants to Canada that the immigration system here has changed and they best be aware of the fact.

The announcements (translated from Hungarian), which began on Jan. 16, read as follows: “An announcement from the Government of Canada. To deter abuse, Canada’s refugee system has changed. People with unfounded claims will be sent home faster. Learn more: www.cic.gc.ca/change.”

Jason Kenney, Canada’s minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism, has long proclaimed that Hungarian Roma have been abusing Canada’s immigration system for years. In 2008, after visa restrictions were lifted, a new wave of Hungarian Roma began seeking refuge in Canada. In early 2012, Kenney characterized most of the Roma claims as “bogus” and pushed for reform after a spike in Hungarian asylum seekers in 2011. According to the ministry, Hungary was Canada’s No. 1 source country for asylum claims in 2011, with more than 4,400 applicants.

Canada’s immigration laws changed in 2012 with the passage of Bill C-31, the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act. Hungary was put on the government’s designated country of origin list (DCO) late last year. Canada considers DCO-designated states to be democratic and as having institutions and laws to assist and provide protection for minorities.

Jewish community member and former Vancouverite Alexis Pavlich, press secretary for Kenney, said in an e-mail that Canada continues to “take pride in the compassion” of its asylum system. “We continue to resettle more genuine refugees than almost any other country in the world. In fact, our government is increasing the number of refugees Canada resettles by 20 percent,” Pavlich wrote. “But Canadians have no tolerance for those who abuse our system and seek to take unfair advantage of our country at great expense to taxpayers.

“To date, less than $3,000 has been spent on this public awareness campaign. A total of $13,000 has been budgeted, but a total cost will not be known until the campaign is completed. This cost is significantly less than the average of $30,000 it costs Canadian taxpayers per bogus asylum claim. Accordingly, every single unfounded claim that we can prevent from being made as a result of this public notice returns real savings for hard-working taxpayers.”

The Canadian Roma community took exception to the government’s campaign, saying it was motivated by racism and did not take into account the reasons Roma want to flee the European Union-member state. Gina Csanyi-Robah, executive director of Toronto’s Roma Community Centre and chief spokesperson of the Canadian Roma community, accused the government of condoning continuing human rights abuses by far-right Hungarian nationalists against her people. Listing Hungary as a DCO doesn’t take into account the rising xenophobia and antisemitism taking hold there, she said.

Members of the nationalist Hungarian opposition Jobbik party have recently made overt statements against Roma and Jews, while its paramilitary offshoots have gone on marches to verbally and physically attack both Roma and Jews in recent years.

Csanyi-Robah said what the Canadian government is doing is wrong. It “encourages the continued shaming and hatred directed at the [Roma] community for ‘ruining Hungary’s good name’ and is genuinely interfering into the refugee asylum process by making Canada appear as a country to not seek safety in.”

Kenney’s office noted that, in 2009, it engaged in “a similar public notice campaign” for residents of Mexico and the Czech Republic. And, in February and March 2011, the ministry also ran a four-week anti-fraud campaign both domestically and abroad “against crooked immigration consultants and marriage fraud.” It featured ads in various media targeting potential immigrants from the Philippines, India and China, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) said.

In a Jan. 16 story on hvg.hu – Hungary’s leading online economic and political magazine – Miskolc Mayor Kriza Ákos was quoted saying he was “outraged” at Canada’s campaign and that his city would forbid any Roma refugees returned by Canada from finding housing or apartments if they had sold or given up their homes in order to seek asylum. Ákos said he’s asked the Canadian embassy why his city was targeted for the campaign, but has not received a satisfactory answer.

CIC said that it focused its messaging on Miskolc because it “has been the No. 1 source area in Hungary for asylum claims in Canada.”

– For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com.

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