The smugglers are reportedly charging $10,000 - $30,000 for passage, and those using the pipeline are repaying them by “applying for welfare benefits and engaging in low-level organized crime,” according to the National Post’s sources.
In September, 34 Romanian Roma were arrested east of Toronto by the Durham Regional Police Department during a crackdown which officials characterized as the dismantling of an “organized crime ring.” Durham police posted a video taken from security cameras, which shows distraction-style tactics used during robberies at jewelers and convenience stores.
Canadian investigators have calculated that persons identified in their investigation have received over $2 million from social support programs since January. They also identified more than $1 million in “suspicious wire transfers” shipped overseas.
Police spokespeople confirmed that at least some of the suspects were in Canada illegally.
The Roma – known historically as “Gypsies” – make up 3.2 percent of the population in Romania, where they are the victims of rampant discrimination and hostility.
“The poverty in Romania for the Roma community is crazy,” Gina Csanyi-Robah, executive director of the Roma Community Centre in Toronto, told the Post. “It’s like sub-Saharan Africa in a European country. There’s almost complete exclusion of Roma from employment.”
Csanyi-Robah says that it doesn’t take much prodding for Roma to leave Romania, but she’s skeptical of the smuggling allegations.
The discovery of the alleged network comes as Canada is trying to deal with a surge in refugee claims from Eastern Europe. New regulations which will likely take effect before the end of the year are designed to streamline the deportation process. Unfounded asylum claims will be processed in as few as 45 days, according to Canadian Minister of Immigration Jason Kenney.
