Underwater hockey players seeking refugee status

[MORTARDUDE]

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Underwater hockey players seeking refugee status
May have been front

Stewwart Bell and Andrew McIntosh
National Post


Saturday, February 22, 2003
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A group of Moldovan women who convinced Canadian immigration authorities they were members of an underwater hockey team travelling to Alberta for a competition have filed claims for refugee status.

In what some now suspect was an unlikely migrant smuggling scheme, the 12 women registered to represent Moldova -- a tiny, impoverished Eastern European nation -- at the 2002 World Underwater Hockey Championships in Calgary last July.

Canadian officials issued visas allowing them to enter the country, but they never showed up at the competition and their games were forfeited. The other teams thought the Moldovans had been denied visas.

But two weeks later, immigration investigators called the event's organizers to say eight of the women had turned up in Winnipeg and Toronto, where they had entered Canada's refugee system. It is unclear what happened to the other four.

"This is the first time it's ever happened," Margaret Francis, chairperson of the championships, said yesterday from Calgary. She suspects the Moldovan underwater hockey federation may have been just a front.

Denis Coderre, the Minister of Immigration, said he was unaware of the case, but added any refugee claims would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

The United Nations has identified Moldova as a major centre of migrant smuggling. Moldova borders Ukraine and Romania and is one of Europe's poorest nations.

A spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada also said he was unaware of the team defection. But Ms. Francis confirmed she had co-operated with immigration officials investigating the matter.

She said Moldova was among 70 nations invited to compete at the world underwater hockey championships. The Moldovan men's and junior teams were denied visas, but Canadian officials gave the green light to the women's team.

sbell@nationalpost.com

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