DETAINING INNOCENTS
Critics ask why jails used for immigrants who haven’t committed crime
A Nigerian man spent 199 days in custody at the Regina Correctional Centre before being deported. He wasn’t charged with a crime.
A Pakistani man was held at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre for 111 days, also without charges.
These were just two of 21 men and women held in Saskatchewan jails as “immigration detainees” between July 2016 and March 2017. Eleven of them weren’t facing any Criminal Code charges. Even so, they were housed in the general population, side-by-side with convicts and those facing charges.
An immigration hold, or detention, is used by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) in cases involving foreign nationals or permanent residents. A crime doesn’t necessarily have to take place for the CBSA to order someone’s detention. Visa violations, failed refugee claims and other administrative issues can end up spiralling into detention.
The StarPhoenix obtained information about detainees held in Saskatchewan between the summer of 2015 and early 2017 through an Access to Information Request to the Ministry of Justice. Detainees were held for periods ranging from 48 hours to more than 700 days.
SOME STATS
Between July 2015 and July 2016, 33 people were held as immigration detainees in Saskatchewan provincial facilities, 25 of whom had not been charged with any criminal offence.
Between March 2015 and May 2016, a man spent 434 days at the Regina jail without criminal charges before being deported to Iraq.
Between 2014 and January 2016, another man spent 738 days — more than two years — at the Regina jail without a charge until his hold expired and he was released back into the community.
Some provinces like Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec have dedicated facilities for people facing immigration violations. The CBSA has agreements with other provinces, including Saskatchewan, to house detainees in jails and remand centres.
The Saskatchewan Ministry of Justice declined an interview request, but confirmed there is an agreement in place with the CBSA to house detainees.
“Individuals who are admitted to a correctional centre as part of the Province’s agreement with CBSA are placed in correctional facilities according to their security level and any other relevant factors that have been found through the assessment process,” the ministry said in an emailed statement.
According to the ministry, the number of immigration detainees held in provincial correctional facilities at any given time has been “relatively low.”
The ministry directed all other inquiries to the CBSA.
Scott Bardsley, press secretary for Minister of Federal Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Ralph Goodale, declined an interview.
He provided statements saying the ministry plans to invest $138 million to improve and minimize the use of immigration detention, “by increasing the availability of alternatives to detention as well as capacity in the federal facilities in Vancouver, Toronto and Laval.”
Spokesperson Patrizia Giolti said the CBSA is proposing an expanded Alternative to Detention (ATD) framework, a communitybased supervision program designed to help people with mental health, health and addictions issues, answer questions about housing and employment and help minors and families.
“The expansion of ATDs will help to further reduce reliance on provincial correctional facilities,” Giolti wrote in an email.
She added that a contract was recently awarded to the Canadian Red Cross to monitor immigration detainees.
The CBSA detains foreign nationals who are believed to be unlikely to appear for a removal or proceeding, if they’re believed to be a danger to the public or if there are problems confirming their identity.
The detentions are reviewed after the first 48 hours, the first seven days and every 30 days after that by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
WHAT DOES IT COST?
In the Prairie region — Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta — immigration
detainees are held in provincial detention centres. The CBSA pays the provinces to hold them based on a daily rate, including administrative costs. In Saskatchewan, the CBSA pays $196 per day to house a detainee at a provincial correctional centre, according to the CBSA.
WHERE ARE THEY FROM?
Between July 2015 and March 2017, the CBSA detained 57 people from the U.S., 34 from Somalia, 33 from the Philippines, 26 from India and 21 from Nigeria at facilities in the Prairie region.
Foreign nationals from other countries were held in provincial jails, but nationals from these five nations accounted for the bulk of detainees. In April 2017, the CBSA had 46 people in detention in the Prairie region; about 16 new detainees entered the system that month.
WHERE ARE THEY HELD?
In Saskatchewan, male detainees are held at the Regina and Saskatoon jails and women are held at White Birch Female Remand Unit in Regina and Pine Grove Correctional Centre near Prince Albert.
WHY IS THIS AN ISSUE?
Immigration detentions has received much national attention within the last year, in part due to the deaths of detainees in custody. The End Immigration Detention Network says 15 people have died in Canadian immigration detention since 2000.
On July 25, a federal court judge ruled that the practice of indefinite immigration detention does not violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
OPPOSING VIEWS
Gloria Nafziger, Amnesty International Canada’s refugee, migrants and country campaigner, objects to holding people in penal institutions.
“The facility itself is not designed or created for that,” Nafziger said, adding refugees and migrants shouldn’t even be detained for immigration-related matters, since that would be contrary to international conventions.
“Because they haven’t committed any offence, the nature of the detention in a criminal facility is just inappropriate,” she said.
Nafziger said a lot of attention is focused on the major centres — Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver — and it’s difficult to track immigration-related detentions in smaller centres. Added to this is lack of direct oversight by the CBSA, in favour of oversight provided by provincial corrections, which has a different mandate and purpose.
“The CBSA, in fact, is off-loading its responsibility to the Ministry of Corrections,” she said.
Nafziger also has concerns about migrants and refugees having access to legal counsel.
“The concerns that they need to present in order to represent themselves are not the same kinds of concerns that most detainees, criminal-related detainees, would have — and being able to get access to competent legal advice is a huge challenge to people who are detained.”
INNOCENT IN JAIL
Detention can also affect detainees psychologically, especially when they’ve never been in jail before, said Saskatoon-based immigration lawyer Chris Veeman.
“It can be quite unfair in the sense that they’re held in remand and they’re often put in with some pretty tough characters. They’re not charged with a crime, and yet they’re being held with some ... people with serious accusations against them,” he said.
Detaining people without charges is nothing new, Veeman said. A few years ago, he represented a man from Israel who was detained for selling paintings at a kiosk without authorization. The man was having a difficult time in custody because of his dietary needs. It was difficult for him to eat food prepared at the jail. Religious observances are also difficult and they had to make efforts to get a rabbi into the jail, he added.
“These things I think are more difficult here because it’s a smaller centre,” he said.
Veeman hasn’t been involved in longer-term cases, but has worked with clients who spent 30 days in custody, and with “multiple 30day” cases. He said a common alternative to custody is a cash bond; the amount depends on the circumstances of the case.
“I think what I’m seeing, more anecdotally than anything, there’s less emphasis on detention than there used to be,” Veeman said.
He sees detention as more appropriate in cases where a person has a history of non-compliance, such as not showing up for meetings or hearings, or going underground for long periods of time.
Money can make a difference. If a person can demonstrate the ability to pay a bond and hire legal counsel, that would work in the person’s favour.
No legal aid services are available for immigration detention hearings, although some organizations will assist people pro bono.
“If people have access to money, they can better organize their effort to satisfy the CBSA — the enforcement officer, minister’s counsel or immigration division — that they’re not a flight risk,” Veeman said.
He sees a need for detention in some non-criminal cases, such as when someone is a flight risk and won’t comply with the CBSA. But for people who pose no risk to the public, there should be an alternative to provincial jail, he said.
“It’s just a very harsh way of treating someone who may not have done anything that the average person would consider to be a grievous crime.”