Canadian immigration frequently fails to recognize the claim of refugee status from Egyptian Coptic Christians, reported CTV news yesterday. In at least half the cases, claimants are sent back to Egypt to face increased persecution.
The 2005 Country Report on Human Rights from the U.S. State Department said Egypt is responsible for "numerous human rights abuses," in particular against religious minorities. The report lists numerous cases of "religious discrimination" against Coptic Christians and says there is widespread "torture and abuse" in Egyptian prisons.
Christians who have made refugee claims in the west will almost certainly be imprisoned and possibly tortured if they are sent back to Egypt.
But readiing further, we find:
Since 2000, the Immigration and Refugee Board's records show that about half of the refugee claims of Egyptians were denied. The records don't show how many of those were Christians. Currently there are approximately 20 Egyptian Christians facing deportation from Canada.
Emphasis added.
The lack of religious identification may itself be a sign of creeping dhimmitude, for fear of riling domestic Islamists and multi-cultists. Someone once said that Canada was becoming one big residential motel for Muslim immigrants. But I don't know. It'd be interesting to learn more about how Canada handles these cases, to see how meaningful the statistics in the story are.
