Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch human rights organizations criticized the Canadian immigration system, within which illegal migrants are indefinitely contained in special immigration centers, and sometimes – and together with criminals. The corresponding report was published on Thursday, June 17th.
“Many people have developed problems with mental health. This is the place where you need to be very strong, so as not to lose the mind and stay with those who you are. When I collected everything together – all the severity [of that situation] and The fact that I was far from my wife and children was very hard. I just prayed, “Charles told, twice turned out to be in provincial prisons in 2015 and 2020.
The authors of the report indicated that, contrary to the reputation of the hospitable state that entrenched the Canada, the country puts thousands of people in prisons for reasons associated with immigration. Those who are trying to hide from persecution, and those who simply seek the best life, and even those who lived in this country since childhood. According to them, detainee immigrants are contained in harsh conditions, and often without the established release date.
According to the Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA), the number of detainees mentioned category increased from 2016 to 2020, until it rises to peak value from 2019-2020, reaching 8825 people.
Against the background of the Pandemic COVID-19, the Canadian authorities freed the unprecedented number of immigrants, but the conditions of the detention were still severe. So, some of them severely restricted access to phones and shower. Due to the current situation, during the first year of the pandemic, the hunger strike was announced in the immigration center in the Montreal area three times.
Human rights defenders note that CBSA with a wide range of powers (among other things, the employees of this body are allowed to arrest, search and delay), is not controlled by society. According to their data, lawyers, specialists in the field of mental health, the former detainees immigrants and legal representatives, as well as providing assistance to migrants, citizens repeatedly complain about the ill-treatment of immigrants from the CBSA.
In accordance with the published data, in the period from 2016 to 2020, about two thirds of the detainees of immigrants were in the temporary detention centers, which resemble the mid-level prison. In addition, in the same period, the authorities were placed in provincial immigrants prisons, where they were together with persons accused of committing criminal offenses, waiting for trials, as well as with convicts serving criminal punishment for up to two years. At the same time, many of these prisons were strict regime objects. There is also evidence that the smallest number of immigrants was kept in other institutions, including police sites.