Canada’s immigration system is too taxed to take in large numbers of Rohingya refugees, says Conservative foreign affairs critic Erin O’Toole.

His comments come on the heels of a government announcement Wednesday that Canada is ready to welcome Rohingya refugees — as soon as the conditions in the region permit their resettlement.

For O’Toole, the non-committal announcement is a symptom of a bigger problem.

“I think that was a recognition that right now, due to really the inaction of the Liberal government, our system is stretched to the max,” O’Toole told iPolitics Thursday.

The number of new arrivals to Canada has increased in recent months. Many of the attempted asylum-seekers are from Nigeria and head across the northern border after a brief stay in the United States. 7,612 people crossed into Canada illegally in the first four months of this year.

Despite his concerns about the system being stressed, the Tory MP said that in acute cases Canada can look at bringing in Rohingya families who cannot otherwise be resettled.

“But to do a large pledge at a time that the government basically admits the system is stressed wouldn’t be fair for the refugees themselves,” he said.

The feds, however, denied O’Toole’s assertion that the influx of asylum seekers would impact Canada’s ability to help the Rohingya.

“The statement that Rohingya [refugees] are in some way related to irregular border crossings is patently false,” said Ahmed Hussen’s press secretary Mathieu Genest.

“Refugees that are resettled from other countries are [processed] by IRCC and asylum claims are [processed] at the IRB, so it’s two different systems altogether,” he said. “So it’s a myth that’s been perpetuated by the Conservatives that is not based in fact.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland has also expressed concern about the hurdles Canada faces in its attempts to bring in refugees from the region.

“The refugees require an exit permit to leave Bangladesh, so it’s a complicated situation,” she told reporters in a May 23 press conference.

She did, however, acknowledge that some Rohingya refugees have a desire to come to Canada.

“I’ve heard from Rohingya Canadians who have family who are caught in this terrible situation, that they would like their relatives to be able to join them in Canada. That also is a very natural human desire, and that’s something that I think we as a country, we as a government need to listen to,” she said.

Freeland also pointed out that most of the Rohingya refugees would just like to go back home to Myanmar.

The Rohingya are an ethnic minority in Myanmar that have been facing ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Myanmar military. The government in Myanmar refuses to grant citizenship to the group, which it sees as illegal immigrants.

Roughly 700,000 Rohingya have fled the country and are living in refugee camps in Myanmar’s neighbouring country, Bangladesh.

The government’s special envoy to the region, Bob Rae, released his recommendations for how the feds should handle the crisis on April 3. He did not ask Canada to commit to bringing in a specific number of refugees, but rather called on the government to signal a willingness to welcome refugees from the Rohingya community.

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