TRANSMITTAL OF APPLICATIONS FOR PERMANENT

UNCLAS KINGSTON 002508 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CAR, PRM/POP (GEHRING),PRM/ECA (IRIS) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: CA CU HA PREF SMIG JM SUBJECT: TRANSMITTAL OF APPLICATIONS FOR PERMANENT RESIDENCE IN CANADA REF: A. STATE 198777 ¶B. POWELL/GEHRING 11/3 TELCON This message is Sensitive but Unclassified (SBU). Please handle accordingly. ¶1. (SBU) Upon receipt of IOM package containing applications for Canadian resettlement for 17 Cubans and one Haitian currently under U.S. protection at U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay (Ref A),Polcouns met on November 3 with Carina Parnham, Counselor and Manager (Immigration),Canadian High Commission, to deliver the applications. Parnham said that she had been expecting the application for the Haitian, having been informed of the case by Ottawa some three weeks earlier, but that the Cuban applications caused her considerable surprise. ¶2. (SBU) Parnham agreed to accept the Haitian application "with no problem," but added that Canada could not accept the Cubans for resettlement because they did not meet the Geneva Convention's definition of a refugee as an individual not in his/her country of residence or nationality. Polcouns emphasized that all 19 migrants had been determined to have a well-founded fear of persecution, a point Parnham did not dispute, and explained U.S. interest in seeking Canadian resettlement in order to discourage intending migrants from undertaking illegal and dangerous attempts to reach U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo. Parnham replied, however, that Canadian law did not permit the GOC to accept the Cubans under these circumstances because "they are still in Cuba." She agreed to hold onto all of the applications with the understanding that she was doing so only until receiving instructions from Ottawa on the matter. ¶3. (SBU) On November 4, Parnham telephoned Polcouns to inform him that the 18 Cuban applications for resettlement were being sent to Citizenship and Immigration Department headquarters, Ottawa, for return to the Department via the Canadian Embassy in Washington. TIGHE