Letter to PM calls for immediate end to migrant incarceration

A letter sent Monday morning to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by 45 Canadian and international groups is calling on the Canadian government to “immediately” stop imprisoning migrants for administrative reasons.

In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Radio-Canada/CBC, the signatories expressed concern that immigration detainees are being sent to other provinces rather than being released, as some detention agreements are about to expire.

Every year, Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) detains thousands of migrants. The vast majority are held because the border agency believes they will not appear for immigration processes, such as a removal.

So far, eight provinces — including Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia — have informed the federal government that they were putting an end to agreements under which they were paid to incarcerate foreign nationals held under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Provinces have to give one-year notice to the CBSA to rescind their contract.

On June 30, 2023, the agreement with Alberta will become the first to expire, followed by B.C. at the end of July and Nova Scotia at the beginning of August.

CBSA has started to transfer some immigration detainees to other detention centres elsewhere in the country, according to the letter signed by legal clinics, immigration lawyers, refugee community centres and human rights organizations.

“Instead of transferring people across provinces to keep them detained, the federal government should invest to expand localized programs of community-based alternatives to detention,” said the letter, which is also addressed to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and Immigration Minister Sean Fraser.

Two former federal Liberal ministers signed the cover message accompanying the letter.

Lloyd Axworthy and Allan Rock, respectively a chair and member of the World Refugee & Migration Council, write that they are among the thousands of Canadians asking the Trudeau government to “show leadership and end the human rights violations in the immigration detention system”. 

“Asylum seekers and migrants should be welcomed to Canada with dignity and respect, not dehumanized and detained”, they added.

“Many people in immigration detention experience the most restrictive forms of incarceration in the country – including maximum security provincial jails and solitary confinement,” the letter said.

The federal government said on June 13 it had not yet decided what would happen to immigration detainees presently held in provincial jails.

Radio-Canada/CBC reached out to CBSA again on June 21 to ask if an alternative plan had been found. CBSA has not yet provided an answer.