REFILE - CAPTION CLARIFICATION A Roma child looks at French police standing guard as Roma families are evicted from their illegal camp near the Var river in Nice, southeastern France, November 27, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard (FRANCE - Tags: SOCIETY IMMIGRATION POLITICS) ATTENTION EDITORS : FRENCH LAW REQUIRES THAT THE FACES OF MINORS ARE MASKED IN PUBLICATIONS WITHIN FRANCEERIC GAILLARD/Reuters
The Canada Border Services Agency should clarify the practices it recommends to airlines carrying passengers from central Europe to Canada.
CBC reports outline that in the international airports of Budapest, Vienna and Warsaw, certain people in airport check-in lines are being approached and asked questions such as whether they are Roma. It's disturbing to think that people might be selected for questioning in part because they have darker skins than other central Europeans. It appears that most of the passengers who are not allowed to board are indeed Roma.
It seems, however, that the reason typically given for a refusal to let someone board has to do with travel documents. But the required documents are typically in order; a ticket, a return ticket, a credit card and above all a passport normally suffice – except, it seems, for people who are Roma, or look like them. In one instance, a passenger was allegedly asked how he and his family had been able to pay for their tickets.
Since 2011, there has not been a visa requirement for Hungarians travelling to Canada. On the other hand, in 2012, the Canadian government designated Hungary as a safe country, considerably raising the bar for anyone seeking refugee status in Canada from Hungary. The word "safe" isn't absolute, however; some claimants can still make a strong case that they have been persecuted.
Quite a few refugee claimants have been deported back to Europe in the past few years – in one instance, an elementary school in downtown Toronto was almost emptied as a result – but this year there has been a renewed rise in refugee claims from central Europe, raising the stakes.
Airlines are ultimately responsible for who gets on a plane and for who doesn't, not least because the authorities in Canada make the airlines pay the way back for those who board but don't get any further than the inside of a Canadian airport.
The federal government's crackdown on refugee claims may have been justified. But ethnic or racial profiling, at the instance of Canadian officials, is a horrific thought, if that's what's actually happening.
It would be better to incur the expense of deportation than for Canada to flirt with racism.