------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Nov. 14, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
U.S. NOT SAFE FOR ARAB IMMIGRANTS: CANADA ISSUES TRAVEL ADVISORY By G. Dunkel Canadian officials are fed up. Arab, South Asian and Muslim Canadian citizens traveling from Canada to the U.S. have been detained in the United States, sometimes without their families or consulates being notified. In some cases the U.S. has secretly deported them to a third country. Three hundred Ontario residents were recently fingerprinted, photographed and interrogated before being allowed into the U.S. The case of Maher Arar, a highly skilled communications engineer born in Syria, particularly rankled the Canadian authorities. U.S. immigration officials detained Arar while he was changing planes at Kennedy International Airport in New York on Sept. 26. They deported him two weeks later, and he wound up in Syria. Arar's family still has not been in direct contact with him, though Syria has allowed Canada consular access to him. The U.S. has ignored a number of diplomatic notes from Canadian officials angry about this conduct toward their citizens. It was causing quite a bit of botheration at the least, and anguish at the worst. So the Canadian foreign ministry on Oct. 28 issued a travel advisory warning Canadians born in Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia or Yemen "to consider carefully whether they should attempt to enter the United States for any reason, including transit to or from third countries." This was quite a shock to the U.S. political establishment, which is not used to problems, or even public complaints, from Canada. And the U.S. had just kicked off a $15-million public relations campaign to convince Muslims throughout the world that it's okay to be a Muslim in the United States. U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci quickly told Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham that the restrictions would be eased on Canadian citizens. Canadian officials welcomed the move but said they would keep the advisory in place until they saw the revised regulations in writing. That's where the dispute remains. It is getting major media attention in Canada and U.S. cities close to the border. For a country like Canada, which is so strongly overshadowed by U.S. imperialism, to take such a bold step testifies to the international isolation of the Bush administration and to the growing perception that its immigration policies are blatantly racist, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
