Will Canada change its mind and take them in?

In spite of requests by Washington that Canada take in convicts who are cleared for release, Ottawa has been disinclined to act that way, mainly due to security concerns.

In spite of requests by Washington that Canada take in convicts who are cleared for release, Ottawa has been disinclined to act that way, mainly due to security concerns.

Lawyers and a group sponsoring three Chinese Muslim detainees who are cleared for release from the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said that the three former detainees have applied for getting political asylum in Canada.

These three men are among the seventeen ethnic Uighurs who were detained in the US military prison in Cuba. The US has cleared these men for release but there are fears that they might not be treated fairly or even tortured if they were sent back to China, which clearly says that they are terrorists belonging to an outlawed nationalist group.

Mehmet Tohti, a member of the Uighur Canadian Association, a non-profit organization, said that two of these inmates applied last week and one of them applied in October.

Canada has already refused several requests from Washington to grant asylum to these men who are cleared for release from Guantanamo. Tohti said that till now there hasn’t been any response from the government to the request of the Uighurs.

A spokeswoman for Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration government agency, Danielle Norris, said that without the consent of the men, she will not be able to say anything about their specific cases due to privacy laws. However, Norris said in an email that the top priority of the department is protecting the safety and security of Canadians and said that a permanent resident or a foreign national will not be taken into Canada if there is any reason of believe that the person in question has engaged or will engage in acts terrorism.

Thus it is clear that Canada, like many other countries, is not willing to intake Guantanamo refugees.