Most of the others were sent to federal immigration holding centres. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)īetween 20, roughly one-quarter of the 8,000 migrants detained on average each year by CBSA were sent to provincial jails.īy the fiscal year of 2021-2022, the number of immigration detainees had fallen to about 3,000, but close to one-quarter of them were still kept in provincial jails. Nevertheless, he was incarcerated with hardened criminals while CBSA unsuccessfully tried to arrange his removal to Somalia.Ībdirahman Warssama spent five years and seven months in jail without knowing when he'd be released. Warssama, like other immigration detainees, was not charged with a crime at the time. That's what happened to Abdirahman Warssama, originally from Somalia, who remained locked up for five years and seven months in maximum security jails in Ontario, including one in Lindsay, Ont., about 135 kilometres northeast of Toronto. Many migrants have spent years in provincial jails without knowing when they'd get out. "Ontario's correctional institutions should be focused on providing care and custody to individuals serving custodial sentences or on remand, not on immigration detainees, which is the federal government's responsibility," a ministry spokesperson told Radio-Canada/CBC. Radio-Canada/CBC confirmed the information. Ontario's decision was first reported by the Globe and Mail. On Thursday, Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner told federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino that his government was also cancelling its contract. Under these agreements, the provinces must give CBSA one year's notice of cancellation. Ontario has joined seven other provinces in announcing it will no longer incarcerate migrants detained for administrative reasons in its provincial jails.Įarlier this week, a Radio-Canada/CBC report revealed that Quebec and New Brunswick had ended their contracts with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), under which the provinces were paid to imprison foreign nationals held under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.įollowing that news, human rights organizations and immigration lawyers reinforced their appeal to Ontario, where CBSA detains the most migrants, to follow suit.
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