41,000 individuals ordered deported by Canada's border-protection agency are missing
Tracking of deportees inadequate, report says
Andrew Mayeda, with files from Darah Hansen, Canwest News Service; with files from Vancouver Sun
Vancouver SunWednesday, May 07, 2008
Auditor-General Sheila Fraser found that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) does not have an adequate system for tracking such individuals. Moreover, CBSA officers don't investigate the vast majority of such cases, for fear of devoting resources to find people who might have already left the country.
As a result, there are a growing number of individuals who might be staying in Canada illegally, a list that could include serious criminals.
A recent example in British Columbia is the case of convicted rapist Mohamed Hagi Mohamud, a Somalia-born refugee once described by the Surrey provincial Crown counsel who prosecuted him as "a poster boy for deportation."
Mohamud had chalked up two previous assault convictions and was the subject of an immigration arrest warrant when he brutally attacked a mother of three in Surrey in March 2005.
He was finally deported earlier this year after serving time for the sexual assault.
Unlike some countries, Canada doesn't have exit controls to monitor individuals who have been ordered to leave, Day noted in responding to the audit.
"There needs to be a better system to track people who have been told they are inadmissible and many of those people leave of their own accord, but they don't report it.
"That's one of the recommendations we want to pursue," Day told reporters, without elaborating.
The Commons public accounts committee asked Fraser to follow up on a 2003 audit showing that a growing number of people remained in Canada despite being ordered to leave.
CBSA officers are authorized to arrest and detain permanent residents and foreign nationals who pose a danger to the public, cannot verify their identity, or are likely to skip their immigration proceedings.
The most recent audit found the agency has improved its ability to assess risks and track individuals ready for removal. At the time of the 2003 audit, the agency had no means of counting the number of people ordered to leave the country.
Still, the number of individuals who might be staying illegally continues to grow.
"It's obviously a problem, because it really goes to the integrity of our immigration laws," Fraser told reporters. "If people can come into the country and stay here illegally, why would they go what through what is a very long and complicated process to become a resident in Canada?"
However, she said it was "good news" the agency is focusing its resources on "higher-risk individuals."
The CBSA has since established a database that tracks individuals subject to either removal orders or immigration warrants. An immigration warrant is a warrant for arrest and detention under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Individuals sought on such warrants are typically deported after being caught.
New Democrat Bill Siksay, who represents the riding of Burnaby-Douglas, called on the Conservative government to invest more resources in the CBSA and develop a strategy for tracking deportees.
"The whole question of removals is really crucial to whole immigration system," he said.
Siksay, who until recently was the NDP's immigration critic, said at least some of the problem in the removal process rests with the Immigration and Refugee Board, where a backlog in refugee cases is predicted to double from 42,300 in 2007-08 to 84,300 in 2010-11 because of the lack of appointees to decision-making positions.
"It's those kinds of backlogs that throw that whole [immigration] system into disrepute," Siksay said.
Source: Vancouver Sun, May 07, 2008