November 24, 2003	Monday	Ramazan 28, 1424

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TORONTO, Nov 23: Ottawa is working on a plan to grant legal status to thousands of illegal immigrants and undocumented workers, including Pakistanis, living in different cities of Canada.

Announcing details of the plan at a press conference here on Sunday, Immigration Minister Denis Coderre said the undocumented workers would be “granted temporary work visas, and then they would be allowed to apply for landed immigrant status after two years.”

The minister made it clear that the programme should not be considered as a “general amnesty for all illegal immigrants.”

“We won’t grant a general amnesty,” Mr Coderre said, adding: “We need a validation process on a case-by-case basis. We will add a humanitarian component to the solution.”

He further said the Citizenship and Immigration Department would assess the language and job skills of undocumented workers, as well as their ability to integrate into the Canadian way of life.

“At the same time there will be zero tolerance for criminals or people who have an impact on security. We must send a message that illegal activities will not be tolerated,” the minister added.

According to a rough estimate, 400,000 illegal immigrants are living across Canada. Among them are nearly 40,000 Pakistanis who are seeking refugee status. The number of Pakistani refugees in Canada increased in the last few months after the US asked illegal immigrants to register themselves under INS (Immigration and Naturalization System). It forced many Pakistanis living illegally in different parts of the United States to move to neighbouring Canada and seek refugee status.

Many Pakistani refugees are calling government’s new plan as “Ottawa’s Eid gift.”