Islamabad: About 2,000 US-based Pakistanis have so far fled to Canada to escape
arrest and deportation under new American immigration laws imposing stringent checks
on them.
Pakistani Embassy in Washington said it knows about 400 families that have taken
refuge in Canada but acknowledged many more might have gone quietly.
Bush administration has included Pakistan in the list of countries whose nationals
living in US have to get themselves registered under the Immigration and
Naturalisation Service (INS).
Pakistani welfare groups assisting the refugees say they know of at least 2,000
Pakistanis who have fled to Canada.
"They (the groups) may be right. We do not have the exact figure but we know many are
going," Imran Ali, Second Secretary at Pakistan Embassy, was quoted as saying by
'Dawn' o January 21.
Most of Pakistani immigrants interviewed said they use three border crossings, one in
Michigan and two in New York, and board the midnight Greyhound bus at Manhattan's
Port Authority. Six hours later they arrive at a deserted strip mall on the Western
edge of Plattsburgh and go by taxi through frozen Northern farmlands to the border
from where they walk final 300 yards through snow to Canadian immigration centre.
Another popular route is Buffalo-Niagara border crossing in New York, the daily said,
adding so far the New York-Canada border is the busiest escape route because New York
city has a vast Pakistani community.
The number of Pakistanis migrating to Canada is likely to rise by February 7 - last
date for registration. Media reports said over a lakh Pakistanis resided in US
without proper visas.
Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri is currently in US to press the officials to go
"soft" on Pakistanis.
PTI
