We had warning: Documents show feds knew risks posed by refugees

By Tom Godfrey

The Toronto Sun, Nov. 6, 2001

Federal immigration officials were warned almost a year before Sept. 11 that it was "critical" to stop undocumented refugee claimants from entering Canada, internal documents show.

"It is critical to establish the identity of people seeking to enter Canada and we have made a commitment to do so," the internal document says.

Up to 60% of refugee claimants have no documents or unsatisfactory documents, senior immigration staff told their managers during an operations sector retreat in October 2000.

The staffers said that from 10% to 20% of the claimants arriving at Pearson and Montreal airports did not return their mail-in refugee kits.

"Warrants are issued for many of these cases," the staffers said. "These cases leave Canada vulnerable to criminal and security risks."

Canada will accept about 30,000 refugees this year. [[IRB head Peter Showler says 45,000]]

The internal documents were obtained by Quebec immigration lawyer Richard Kurland through an Access to Information request.

Immigration officials said they've made a commitment to try to identify the claimants, but refused to comment on the classified document.

As many as 30 claimants arrive at Pearson nightly, airport workers said. [[The overall national daily refugee average over the last decade has been seventy-one]] They are all fingerprinted, photographed and released. Security checks are conducted weeks later by the RCMP and CSIS.

CRIMINAL PASTS

Immigration data also revealed that since 1998 some 265 claimants, of 80,500 who applied, were found to be ineligible because of criminal or other records.

The RCMP and CSIS are probing a ring of suspected al-Qaida terrorists who arrived in Canada as claimants and went underground.

Police said two suspected al-Qaida terrorists -- one detained for his role in the U.S. attacks and another labelled a threat to national security -- arrived here as claimants.

Nabil Al-Marabh, 35, is accused by police of being a member of Osama bin Laden's "God's Brigade," because he was trained at a bin Laden camp to conduct suicide attacks and bio-terrorism.

U.S. police suspect the well-educated and English-speaking Al-Marabh, who lived in Canada for six years, was chosen by bin Laden emissaries to act as a handler for al-Qaida cells in Canada and the U.S.

Police said the 19 al-Qaida suicide pilots were members of bin Laden's elite 055 Brigade, a squad of 500 fanatics who have vowed to fight to death.