By Harinder Mahil
Thousands of people who show up at Canadian borders each year and apply for refugee status are often sent to detention centres and jails.
Why does the Canadian government treat these people as criminals?
The government’s explanation is that this happens when an immigration officer determines that the applicant will not show up for a hearing before the Immigration and Refugee Board.
This issue came to my attention when I read a recent news story that a detainee at an immigration holding centre in Surrey, B.C., had died after being found unresponsive on Christmas Day. Canada Border Services Agency stated in a statement that first responders were called to the centre, where staff attempted resuscitation. However, they were unable to revive the detainee.
According to news reports, between April 2019 and March 2020, almost 9,000 people were in immigration detention in Canada, including 138 infants and children. Since 2000, at least 16 people have died in these detention centres.
I was shocked to hear a UBC law professor discussing the issue on a radio program. She stated that CBSA refuses to provide information to the public about the detainee who died at the detention centre. The Agency did not release the person’s name, age, country of origin or any circumstances surrounding the death. The law professor went on to say that these detainees are often shackled and treated as criminals but none of the protections that are afforded to criminals are available to them.
“It’s really another disgraceful way that people in immigration detention are dehumanized, even after they die,” said Samer Muscati, a spokesman for Human Rights Watch, which monitors conditions in detention across Canada and raises the alarm about human rights violations.
“We don’t know what their names are, we don’t know if they had a family, where they came from,” Muscati said. “We don’t know how long they were detained, why they were detained, if they had any adverse health conditions. There’s nothing that we know about this person. It’s just a nameless, faceless person that has passed away.”
Efrat Arbel, an associate professor at the University B.C.’s Allard School of Law, said the public is given “very little information about what goes on in immigration detention,” which is “one of the challenges of having no meaningful independent oversight of the Canada Border Services Agency and its operations.”
“It is essential to find out how the person died and the circumstances of their death,” said Arbel, an expert on refugee law, prison law and constitutional law. “This is a public institution where an individual is deprived of liberty at the hands of the state.”
Without answers to these questions, there is no way to hold the CBSA accountable or follow up on any changes that could be made to prevent similar deaths.
It is extremely concerning that there are no time limits on how long an individual can be kept in immigration detention. Just because a person has applied for a refugee status does not mean that he or she should be treated as a criminal.
Many human rights activists have suggested that the federal government should consider other options such as holding the person in the community with reasonable surveillance.
Regardless of their status in a country, migrants have human rights, including the right to freedom from arbitrary detention and equal access to courts. Millions of people worldwide have been forced to flee their homes. Rather than protecting refugees, many of the wealthiest nations are closing their doors and leaving a handful of countries to cope alone.
Refugees should receive at least the same rights and basic help as any other foreigner who is a legal resident, including freedom of thought, of movement, and freedom from arbitrary detention.
Harinder Mahil is a human rights activist and is president of the West Coast Coalition Against Racism (WCCAR).
