Canada, after a recent yacht capsizing that was a failed attempt to smuggle people into the country, has announced that there is a rise and problem in human smuggling and human trafficking in Canada. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has estimated that about ten or twelve percent of illegal immigrants living in Canada have been smuggled or trafficked into the country. There are already 12,595 government-assisted and privately sponsored refugees in the country. While Canada has a large legal immigration population, the government is worried that there are people trying to get around the system. In order to do that, they turn to smugglers and traffickers. The controversial Balanced Refugee Reform Act (BRRA), which goes into effect June 29, 2012, was passed to stop smuggling and trafficking. Many fear though that it will only discriminate against refugees trying to enter the country legally and will do nothing to stop the smugglers. The current punishment for smuggling and trafficking people into the country for the first offense is a five hundred thousand dollar fine and ten years in prison. Anyone convicted of smuggling or trafficking more than ten people into the country can face up to life in prison. There is a difference between human smuggling and human trafficking. Human smuggling is people being smuggled into a country, while human trafficking, the people being smuggled are being exploited and often trafficked against their will. People be trafficked are exploited into either the sex trade or forced labor.
The Canadian government has noticed that there is an unsettling pattern in human smuggling and trafficking and are attempting to fix it. Their current punishments are deterrence, but it seems like deterrence is not working, if people are willing to risk $500,000 and ten years in prison.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/03/28/f-human-smuggling-overview.html?cmp=rss
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