Fifteen suspects identified during investigations into B.C.’s extortion crisis have now claimed refugee status, according to government figures released on Friday.
The suspects are all foreign nationals who were facing deportation proceedings for extortions when they made asylum claims, which experts said could delay Canada’s efforts to expel them.
Meanwhile, facing a backlash over the issue, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree’s office released a statement saying he was committed to ensuring that those behind the crimes were deported.
“Extortion is a serious crime, and those who try to misuse Canada’s asylum system to delay removal will face the full force of our immigration and criminal laws,” he said.
“Our government will continue to work closely with British Columbia and municipal partners to ensure the enforcement system is faster, more coordinated, and better equipped so that foreign nationals who engage in extortion face swift consequences.”
His comments were an apparent response to the B.C. government, which had urged Ottawa to expedite deportation hearings for extortion suspects after Global News reported that more than a dozen had claimed refugee status.
“If you’re involved in criminal extortion and in Canada illegally, you should be removed. It’s that simple,” B.C. solicitor general Nina Krieger said on Thursday.
The mayor of Surrey, a city that has been heavily impacted by extortions, also said she was “appalled” by the development and demanded federal action.
Global News reported on Thursday that 14 extortion suspects had filed asylum claims after the CBSA launched deportation proceedings against them.
Efforts to deport them must now wait until their refugee claims have been heard by the Immigration and Refugee Board, according to the CBSA.
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On Friday, the CBSA released updated figures indicating that 15 extortion suspects had now claimed refugee status, while the number of investigations had climbed to 103.
“Canada has international legal obligations with respect to asylum and Canadian law allows for persons claiming protection from within Canada to have their case heard by the Refugee Protection Division,” the CBSA said.
But the agency said if it believed a claimant was inadmissible to Canada for criminality, it would “report them as such before the Immigration Division of the IRB, resulting in a suspension of refugee proceedings until an admissibility finding is made.”
“Persons found inadmissible for these serious reasons would be issued a removal order and not allowed to proceed with their refugee claim.”
The refugee claims come as B.C. is facing increasingly brazen India-based crime groups like the Lawrence Bishnoi gang that have been demanding large sums of money from predominantly Sikh Canadians.
To underscore their case, they threaten to kill their targets and then hire local foot soldiers who are often in Canada on student visas to shoot at their houses.
The scheme has become so rampant in parts of B.C. and Ontario that police and immigration officers have formed extortion task forces.
Community leaders at the front line of the extortion epidemic that has spread fears in the province’s South Asian community responded angrily.
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke wrote in a news release that residents of her city “deserve better than to see our legal and immigration systems abused.”
“The federal government must move to immediately fix Canada’s immigration and deportation laws to protect our communities. Guests in our country who break our laws need to be sent home.”
The Safe Surrey Coalition, led by mayoral candidate Doug McCallum, said the government must close the “gaping loopholes in our immigration system that let Indian extortion terrorists dodge deportation by filing bogus last minute refugee claims.”
“They are not refugees,” said McCallum, who served as mayor until 2022. “Their fake claims turn our immigration system into a protective shield for the Bishnoi terrorist syndicate.”
In a post on X, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre wrote: “Charge them. Convict them. Deport them. No more loopholes. No more excuses.”
The B.C. solicitor general, who is also public safety minister, said she had “previously raised this issue with the federal minister of public safety, stressing the need for faster decisions and stronger tools to prevent abuse of the refugee system.”
“We continue to urge Ottawa to expedite hearings when there are credible links to organized crime or violence. We all agree that if you are part of these criminal activities, you should be deported.”
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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