Send Lankan asylum seekers home : Canadian opinion poll suggests

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Send Lankan asylum seekers home : Canadian opinion poll suggests


Saturday, 21 August 2010
International media, monitored reports that Canadian say the government should reject the asylum seekers from Sri Lanka.“The Expositor” reports quoting an opinion poll that by a margin of 5 to 1 Canadians say the government should totally reject the almost 500 would-be refugees from Sri Lanka that arrived last week.
The Leger Marketing poll of 1,500 people, released exclusively to QMI Agency, was conducted from Aug. 2 to 4 as the ship travelled towards the British Columbia coast.Asked which statement best described their own opinion on what shouldbe done with the ship, which may include members of the banned TamilTiger terrorist group, 60% agreed with the statement, " They should beturned away -- the boat should be escorted back to Sri Lanka by theCanadian Navy."Just 17% agreed with the statement, "They should be accepted intoCanada as political refugees."Alberta ranked highest with 74% of respondents there saying send theboat back and just 11% saying let them stay, while Quebec was thesecond highest with 64% opting to send the boat back and 15% sayingthe passengers should stay. "That's a very high number," said Legerpollster David Scholz. He said the number is likely high for a numberof factors, including concerns about who arrived on the boat,including possible Tamil Tiger terrorists, and whether other boatswill follow."There is that worry that this is potentially people coming in, notjust jumping the queue, but coming in and falsely representing wherethey are come from," said Scholz. "We don't often hear about otherrefugee claims that are done on an individual or family basis but whenwe see lots of them at the same time we tend to get a little nervous."Martin Collacott was Canada's highest ranking diplomat in Sri Lankaduring the period when the civil war launched by the Tamil Tigersstarted in the early 1980s. "We need to follow the process that takesthe ones that are legitimate refugees and return the others,"Collacott said. How many are legitimate refugees is up for debate saidCollacott, who noted that the MV Sun Sea came not directly from SriLanka but from Thailand where the passengers were safe from anypossible persecution from the Sri Lankan government.As for what he takes away from the fact that the majority of Canadiansdon't want the government to let the would-be refugees stay, Collacottpins the blame on a battered immigration system.