Canada a desired location for Guantanamo Bay detainees
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 3, 2009 | 6:46 PM ET
By Darren Bernhardt, CBC News
Many Guantanamo Bay detainees cleared of terrorist charges and slated for release have expressed a desire to live in Canada, and refugee organizations are calling for sponsors.
The Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR), a non-profit umbrella group representing several non-governmental organizations and churches, is leading the plea, which goes out to groups and private individuals alike. The ability for citizens to sponsor refugees is unique to Canada, according to CCR executive director Janet Dench, noting refugees to every other country must be government-sponsored.
With U.S. President Barack Obama signing an executive order on Jan. 22 to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year, there is a heightened urgency to find homes for the 55-60 international detainees who cannot return to their home countries for fear of persecution, Dench said.
'This is a highly political issue, and the UN does not like to get involved. The Canadian and U.S. governments have ignored us.' —Janet Dench, Canadian Council for Refugees
"Many years ago we started raising concern about the need for there to be a solution" for detainees cleared of being a terrorist threat to the U.S., she told CBC News. "We pressed the U.S. government and the United Nations, which has been singularly unhelpful.
"This is a highly political issue and the UN does not like to get involved. The Canadian and U.S. governments have ignored us."
Some media reports have stated there are six detainees, including three Uighurs, who have applied for resettlement in Canada. The Uighurs are a Muslim minority group from northwestern China, many of whom have fought for independence from China.
The reports by various Canadian media outlets state those individuals are seeking to live in Toronto and Montreal, though Dench denies that.
"That's incorrect. I don't know of six of them that have applications," she said. "We are working to find places for as many people as we can. The expectation is not that all 60 would come to Canada because there are also a number of European countries coming forward with sponsorships."
Of the detainees currently inside the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo, 17 are Uighurs who were cleared of all charges against them in 2004. But they haven't been released because few countries have been willing to take them and incur China's wrath.
Canada a destination of choice
Canada is one of the desired destinations for those detainees, according to Washington-based lawyer George Clarke, who represents Anwar Hassan, a Uighur who has a confirmed application for resettlement.
"Canada is a bit of a leader from a human rights perspective," he said, also noting that Canada already "has a good size" Uighur population.
Clarke called his client's application is a "litmus test" for this country.
"Perhaps, this will make it easier for all Uighur detainees to step forward and make applications. Maybe once Mr. Hassan and a few others are in, the government will come forward and simply say, 'We'll take them all.' I don't know; it's so tough to tell what is going to happen."
Despite his client's sponsorship by the Don Valley Refugee Resettlers (DVRR), a group of eight Toronto churches associated with the CCR, Clarke still has no idea when or if Hassan will be approved.
"It's like a magic box. You open it and really have no idea how things happen," he said.
Clarke is aware of two other Uighur men also being sponsored by the DVRR but was also confused about the number of detainees being reported on by some Canadian media.
"I don't know where that six is coming from. There's my client and two others," he said. "Six? I don't know about that."
The Archdiocese of Montreal has been listed in some reports as another sponsor for detainees, but calls to that organization were not immediately returned.
