Signers say that immigrants who are being held are being sent to other provinces instead of being let go
In a letter sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday morning, 45 Canadian and international groups ask the Canadian government to “immediately” stop locking up migrants for administrative reasons.
Radio-Canada/CBC got a copy of the letter, and in it, the people who signed it said they were worried that immigration detainees were being sent to other provinces instead of being let go because some detention agreements were about to end.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) keeps thousands of migrants in custody every year. Most are held because the border agency thinks they won’t show up for immigration procedures, like a removal.
So far, eight provinces, including Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia, have told the federal government that they are ending agreements that paid them to keep foreign nationals in jail who were held under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Provinces must give the CBSA one year’s notice if they want to get out of their contract.
The agreement with Alberta will be the first to end on June 30, 2023. The agreement with B.C. will end at the end of July, and the agreement with Nova Scotia will end at the beginning of August.
The letter from legal clinics, immigration lawyers, refugee community centers, and human rights groups says that the CBSA has started moving some immigration detainees to other detention centers around the country.
The letter, which is also sent to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, says, “Instead of moving people between provinces to keep them in jail, the federal government should invest in expanding localized programs of community-based alternatives to jail.”
The cover message for the letter was signed by two former Liberal ministers from the federal government.
Lloyd Axworthy and Allan Rock, respectively the chair and a member of the World Refugee & Migration Council, write that they are among the thousands of Canadians who want the Trudeau government to “show leadership and stop the human rights violations in the immigration detention system.”
“Asylum seekers and migrants should be treated with dignity and respect when they come to Canada, not treated like animals and locked up,” they said.
“Many people in immigration detention are held in the most restrictive ways in the country, like maximum security provincial jails and solitary confinement,” the letter said.
On June 13, the federal government said that it had not yet decided what would happen to the immigrants who are being held in provincial jails right now.
Radio-Canada/CBC contacted CBSA again on June 21 to find out if a new plan had been made.CBSA has not yet given a response.