– I have a panic attack when I see a border guard, Sara tells Human Rights Watch. In 2012, she had enough of persecution in her home country and fled Mexico to Canada. But instead of being greeted with open arms, Sara was met with handcuffs and a prison in the western state of British Columbia. Thousands of immigrants have suffered the same fate in the last five years alone. But after great pressure from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and a number of local grassroots movements, the authorities in British Columbia, the first province in Canada, have now decided to stop imprisoning immigrants. It was decided after the authorities last month completed their review of the agreement with the Canadian border agency CBSA, which processes the immigrants’ cases. – The review showed that aspects of the agreement are not consistent with the government’s commitment to uphold human rights standards or our desire to ensure social justice and equality for all, says Mike Farnworth, British Columbia’s Minister of Public Safety, in a press release. In violation of human rights Since 2003, the CBSA has had the right to detain and detain immigrants if they consider them to be a risk to the Canadian public or if their identity is in doubt. Those immigrants who were detained could then be placed in detention centers or Canadian prisons. – It is patently unfair that people seeking safety or a better life are imprisoned without having done anything criminal, says Julia Sande, lawyer at Amnesty International Canada, who at the same time does not hide the fact that it is in violation of international human rights. In the last five years alone, 32,000 immigrants have been detained by the border guards. Most have been placed in residential care centres, but thousands have been incarcerated in Canadian prisons – albeit without serving criminal sentences. This is according to a report from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Joint report In June 2021, the two organizations released a report, which showed a number of violations of immigrants’ human rights in Canadian prisons. It was directly instrumental in the British Columbia authorities revising their agreement with the CBSA, which at the end of July resulted in the province withdrawing from the agreement. – Our investigation showed that imprisoned immigrants, including those with disabilities, were regularly handcuffed, chained and restrained with little or no contact with the outside world, says Samer Muscati, associate director at Human Rights Watch for the rights of disabled people in Canada. With no limits on how long an immigrant could be held, the report showed that over 300 immigrants were detained for over a year. The longest case lasted over 11 years and involved a man with clear mental illness and an identity that the authorities could not establish. #WelcomeToCanda In addition to the report, the two human rights organizations together with other local NGOs have started the #WelcomeToCanada campaign. The campaign puts pressure on the governments of Canada’s provinces with the goal of abolishing the detention of immigrants across the country. – The victory in British Columbia was a big step in the right direction, and we have high hopes that other provinces will follow suit. It is time that Canada really welcomes people who seek safety or a better life, emphasizes Samer Muscati. The lawyer Julia Sande also believes that British Columbia’s abolition should ring a bell in other provinces to follow suit. – We continue actively with our campaign in Quebec and Nova Scotia, and the other day the province of Saskatchewan announced that they would review their agreement with the CBSA, she says. In British Columbia, immigrants can in future replace a prison cell with a place to stay. The province’s agreement with the CBSA expires in accordance with the breach of contract in July 2023.
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Canadian state stops imprisoning immigrants
