Thread: Canada: 41,000 Illegal Immigrants Gone Missing

Canada doesn't have a clue as to what is in store for them!

41,000 Illegal Immigrants Gone Missing
May 07, 2008 04:30 AM
Richard Brennan
Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA–Canada's border agency has lost track of 41,000 illegal immigrants, and this is "jeopardizing the integrity of Canada's immigration program," Auditor General Sheila Fraser says.

Fraser said in her spring report released yesterday that the Canada Border Services Agency has issued warrants for the deportation of these people, but doesn't have a clue where they are or if they are still in Canada.

"The agency's working inventory contains 22,000 individuals with enforceable removal orders, whose whereabouts are known to the agency. The remaining 41,000 cases are individuals with immigration warrants for removal, whose whereabouts are unknown to the agency," her report states.

Most of those who have disappeared are believed to be failed refugee claimants. In 2003, it was estimated that there were 36,000 missing illegal immigrants.

"We have to find and remove them," Fraser told reporters.

Fraser said her audit found the border agency does not collect and analyze enough data to properly manage detentions and removals, nor does it monitor them.

However, she said, "the good news is that the agency is focusing its available resources on the higher-risk individuals."

Responsibility for detentions and removal was transferred from Citizenship and Immigration Canada when the border agency was created in December 2003 in response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said that as bad as the situation sounds, it is still better than it was a couple of years ago when the agency did not know how many warrants were outstanding.

"There hasn't been an effective tracking system in place," Day told reporters.

"One of the recommendations (from the auditor) is to improve that and that's what (the border agency) intends to do."

The auditor general said part of the problem is that there is not enough room in the federal immigration detention centres, specifically in Toronto and Vancouver and, as a result, the border agency increasingly allows illegal immigrants to post a bond and then sends them on their way.

The auditor's office found that 368 of the 2,038 cash bonds posted in 2004-05 were forfeited because they did not comply with the conditions. The agency located 178 but still doesn't know where the other 190 individuals are.

In 2006-07, the agency held more than 9,000 people in its own facilities and another 3,500 in provincial cells.

Fraser found, however, the border agency failed to ensure it meets its standards for treatment of detainees.

And it has not established backup plans for bed shortages. For instance, the Toronto holding centre has sometimes increased space by placing sleeping bags and blankets on the floor.

"In another region, holding cells for individuals awaiting hearings, which are designed for three people, had been used to hold 10, without enough space for some to sit."

The auditor also said the agency was not effectively managing detention costs, which amounted to more than $36 million in 2006-07.

The audit found several problems with the way the border agency collects and keeps information, including the fact that, after a temporary residency permit is issued, the agency does not monitor whether the individual complies with its terms and conditions.

"Canada does not monitor the exit of travellers from the country, and therefore the agency does not know whether individuals have left the country as required in their temporary permit," the report stated.

http://www.thestar.com/article/422383

A couple related stats to sort of put things in perspective:

Canada:

Population 34,000,000
Number of IA 'absconders' (or otherwise sought by authorities) = 41,000 (+22,000 whose location is known)


US:

Population 304,000,000
Number of IA absconders = approx 590,000 (the number actually went down for the first time in history recently because of stepped up enforcement and deportation efforts by ICE )

Cart before the horse just like we did....one thing taking them in and another being responsible for them. If you don't have the means to be responsible for them then you only take what you can handle. Can't save the world....only your little section of it.