The Canadian government says its new law is to curb human smuggling, but refugee advocates are worried the legislation might allow the government to target them.

Refugee advocates are worried that a new law to curb human smuggling could hurt their efforts to help refugees abroad.

Humanitarian organizations who act quickly to help move refugees out of danger could fall into the definition of human smugglers, according to Amnesty International.

"There is a concern that people who are assisting others to move for humanitarian reasons could find themselves unknowingly prosecuted under this law," said Amnesty's Gloria Nafziger.

The bill, introduced last week, seeks to deter groups of migrants from arriving en masse at Canada's borders, such as the boats of Tamils that have arrived recently.

If it passes in the House of Commons, it would give the minister of public safety the power to declare a "human smuggling event" and detain migrants for a year and put them on probation for five years, with no right to travel outside Canada, no right to sponsor their families and no right to apply for permanent resident status.

Smugglers would face mandatory jail terms of up to 10 years for moving people for a profit or putting people at risk.

But Amnesty International is worried that the laws put too much power in the hands of the minister -- meaning a number of humanitarian operations could be labelled "smuggling."

Nafziger said human trafficking laws already on the books have been used against a humanitarian worker -- Janet Hinshaw-Thomas was charged in 2007 for helping 12 Haitian refugees make it to a Canadian border crossing.

Refugee Rosita Urrutia made it from El Salvador to Canada with the help of the Unitarian Church. She and some of her extended family fled the country because of its brutal civil war in the 1980s.

"We were accused of being guerrilla fighters, or going against the government, and a lot of us were murdered," she said through a translator.

The family bribed officials to get into Mexico, and then met representatives from the Unitarian Church when they arrived in the U.S. The church helped the family -- about 10 people -- to the Canadian border, where they got refugee status.

"We thank God and we thank Canada," she said.

It's that kind of movement of small groups that could make humanitarian workers the target of such a proposed law, said Nafziger.

"It seems that the law is not meant to apply to one individual, but we don't know whether a group of people is two, or 50 or 500," she said.

A representative of the Canadian government said in a statement that the target of such laws would be criminal organizations making a profit on smugglers.

Unitarian Church minister Steven Epperson said today's church members are very active in helping refugees, but they do so through established channels. He said he's not sure how the law would affect their work.

"It could have a negative impact," he said. "I just don't know at this point. It depends how broadly the law is issued and how it's enforced by the government."

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jon Woodward