End Immigration Detention in BC Jails!

Over the past five years, Canada has detained tens of thousands of people seeking safety or a better life in this country, including in BC. People held in immigration detention are held for immigration purposes but endure some of the country’s most restrictive conditions of confinement, including maximum security provincial jails. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is responsible for immigration detention enforcement; the Agency has sweeping police powers but remains the only major law enforcement agency in the country with no independent civilian oversight. This has led to serious and widespread human rights violations in immigration detention.

Even though immigration detention is within federal jurisdiction, CBSA incarcerates nearly half of all immigration detainees in provincial jails. CBSA relies on contracts with provincial authorities to do this.  

Many of our BC partners and allies have been organizing responses to BC’s review of its immigration detention contract with CBSA to incarcerate migrants and refugee claimants in provincial jails.

CAMPAIGN UPDATE:

CLICK HERE FOR THE MINISTER’S STATEMENT!

Launching 14 Days of ACtion!

Click for May 4th Press Conference, hosted by the BC Civil Liberties Association.

DAY 1 - May 5th: CLICK FOR THE LETTER WRITING CAMPAIGN

Day 2 - May 6th: Click For the SUBMISSION to BC Review by Abdelrahman Elmady

Day 3 - May 7th: Click for Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International Canada’s Joint Submission

Day 4: Mother's Day Action Page. Justice for Girls!

Day 5: CLICK HERE TO READ SWAN’s SUBMISSION

Day 6: CLICK HERE TO READ BCCLA’S SUBMISSION

Day 7: CLick Here to read a Joint Submission from BCPRC, West Coast LEAF, Centre for Gender & Sexual Health Equity, Community Legal Assistance Society, Immigration and Refugee Legal Clinic, Migrant Workers Centre BC

Day 8: CLICK FOR OPEN LETTER FROM HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS

Day 9: Click for open letter from the legal and academic communities

Day 10: Click for Interfaith call to action: Ending human rights violations in immigration detentions in Canada

DAY 11: CLICK TO WATCH TODAY’S ONLINE TEACH IN HOSTED BY PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETY

DAY 12: CLICK FOR RAINBOW REFUGEE’S SUBMISSION

DAY 13: Click for Sara Gomez’s Submission

DAY 14: BREAKING NEWS! HISTORIC VANCOUVER CITY COUNCIL VOTE CALLS ON BC TO END IMMIGRATION DETENTION

BELOW ARE FURTHER SUBMISSIONS, COVERAGE AND ANALYSIS:

Submission by BC’s Office of the Human Rights Commissioner

Legal Analysis of Agreements Allowing Immigration Detention in Canadian Provincial Jails

Sara Maria Gomez Lopez: I never understood why Canada detained me

Why are hundreds of immigrants languishing in Canada’s maximum security jails?

How did we get here?

· In June 2021, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International released a joint report that called on Canada to gradually abolish immigration detention. In October 2021, the organizations launched a joint campaign, #WelcomeToCanada, calling on provincial authorities to stop allowing the federal government to incarcerate immigration detainees in provincial jails. It is through their joint campaign that BC’s Minister Farnworth has agreed to a review of the BC-Canada agreement.

· The CBSA has the sole authority to decide where immigration detainees are held, and there is no legal standard guiding CBSA’s decision to hold a detainee in a provincial jail rather than a dedicated immigration holding centre. The Agency relinquishes control over conditions of detention in provincial jails, and immigration detainees cannot challenge CBSA’s decision regarding their site of detention within detention review hearings.

· Research shows that immigration detainees who are from communities of colour are often incarcerated in provincial jails (rather than dedicated immigration holding centres), and immigration detainees with mental health conditions may be incarcerated in provincial jails (rather than immigration holding centres) specifically because of their health conditions.

· Immigration detention has devastating effects on immigration detainees, their loved ones, and communities. Since 2000, at least 16 people lost their lives in immigration detention, and most of them were incarcerated in provincial jails.

· In the three years before the Covid-19 pandemic, more than a fifth of immigration detainees–about 5,400–were held in 78 provincial jails across Canada, including in BC. Following the onset of the pandemic, CBSA has relied more heavily on provincial jails (incarcerating 40% of immigration detainees in provincial jails in fiscal year 2020-21 alone) and the average length of detention more than doubled.

Why are we targeting CBSA’s contract with BC? 

·  Canada’s practice of incarcerating immigration detainees in provincial jails is a violation of international human rights law

·  Canada’s practice of incarcerating immigration detainees in provincial jails is longstanding; these contracts are decades old. For the first time ever, the BC government has publicly agreed to review its immigration detention contract.

·  If BC cancels its contract with CBSA, it can lead to a domino effect across the country that will bring into question the very foundation of immigration detention: the criminalization of those seeking refuge or a better life in Canada.

 What do we know about BC’s review?   

· What we know so far is that the review is expected to be completed by June 2, 2022, and BC Corrections will be leading the review process. HRW and AI have been urging the government to be more transparent, to publicly announce their decision and to make sure that civil society and those with lived experience are engaged in the review process.

Resource on Borders & Abolition

Border and Rule – Fernwood Publishing

BC Says Refugees Are Welcome. But It Still Detains Migrants | The Tyee

Nearly 100,000 migrants in Canada jailed without charge 

No One Is Illegal – Vancouver 

Solidarity with migrant detainees | Solidarité sans frontières