FST signs joint letter to PM
May 14, 2024
Family Service Toronto has joined more than 80 civil society organizations, settlement agencies and religious groups in Canada in signing a strongly-worded open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling on the government to abandon its plan to expand immigration detention into federal prisons.
Dated Monday, May 13, the letter highlights the human rights harms of jailing migrants on administrative immigration-only grounds. At least 17 people have lost their lives in immigration detention since 2000; most died while incarcerated in a provincial jail.
A 2021 joint report by Amnesty International and Human Rights watch found that people with mental health conditions experience discrimination in immigration detention, and racialized people are disproportionately impacted by this system. The report was titled “I Didn’t Feel Like a Human in There:” Immigration Detention in Canada and its Impact on Mental Health.
Canada incarcerates thousands of people on administrative immigration-related grounds every year, including people who are fleeing persecution, those seeking employment and a better life, and people who have lived in Canada since childhood.
Over the last two years, all Canadian provinces committed to stopping the practice of holding in their jails people detained by the Canada Border Services Agency on immigration-only grounds. However the federal government, in its recent budget implementation bill, has proposed allowing migrants and refugees in immigration detention to be held in federal penitentiaries, facilities usually reserved for people facing criminal sentences of two years or more.