Detention

individuals with on-going processes with CIC, CBSA, and/or the IRB are required to provide separate address notification to each,

individuals with mental health issues, who have had no involvement with the criminal justice system, are detained in provincial criminal institutions,

conditions imposed on individuals to be released from detention by the Immigration Division and conditions imposed for a stay of a deportation order by the Immigration Appeal Division do not always take into consideration difficulties of compliance for people with serious mental health issues.

there are numerous gaps in services for immigrants and refugees with mental health issues and serious problems with the legal framework

1. Refugee claimants not infrequently find themselves in detention even after they have been found eligible;
2. All persons detained in an Immigration Holding Centre are routinely transported to and from hearings in handcuffs and those held in jail (detained under Immigration Act) are conveyed in handcuffs and leg irons;
3. These restraints are in certain cases not removed even when a refugee claim is heard before the IRB;
4. This seems to contradict the spirit in which a refugee claim is supposed to be made;
5. The practice is a violation of UN standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners;

1. In June of 1996, in response to the U.S. INS detention of Canada-bound refugee claimants and the subsequent processing of said claimants for deportation, the CCR passed a resolution urging CIC to cease turning refugee claimants back to the U.S.;
2. INS detentions of Canada-bound refugee claimants have continued and, in fact, broadened in 1998 to include detentions in the Niagara Region, Blackpool and Minnesota;
3. INS has continued to detain certain refugee claimants, even after such claimants have received Canadian eligibility determinations, thereby denying these claimants the opportunity to pursue their refugee claims in Canada;
4. In an April 29, 1998 letter to the President of the CCR, the Acting Director General of the Enforcement Branch, CIC NHQ, stated, "...it is our policy that no person will be returned to the United States where there is reason to believe that they will be removed from the U.S. before the scheduled eligibility determination or would otherwise be unavailable because of detention. We are reviewing our procedures manual to ensure that this is clearly understood";
5. Despite the above-cited policy, CIC in the Niagara Region has continued to direct refugee claimants back to the United States to await eligibility determinations, which has resulted in the detention of a troubling number of people;
6. CIC's practice at certain border crossings of closing the border to refugee claimants on certain days of the week or at certain times of the year has also led to U.S. detentions of Canada-bound refugees awaiting Canadian processing;

1. National Detention Standards remain at a draft stage but function as de facto guidelines;
2. It is acknowledged that there are no management oversight boards for detention facilities within the CIC structure and no satisfactory complaint mechanisms;

The Canadian Red Cross is about to sign a Detention Monitoring Agreement to monitor CIC detention facilities;

1. A number of resolutions, especially Res. 35, June 1994, have raised problems of accountability of immigration officials who abuse the rights of non-citizens in detention;
2. These problems persist;

1. The CCR called in Resolution 20, November 1993 for an end to the detention of refugee children;
2. Minor refugee claimants continue to be detained in Canada;
3. In the case of trafficked minors the government justifies such detention on the grounds that detention protects minors from their traffickers and is in the best interests of children;
4. The CCR recognizes that in certain cases there is a need for the protection of minors but unequivocally opposes the detention of minors as detention is never in the best interests of children;