Canada: Stop Incarcerating Immigration Detainees in Provincial Jails
(Ottawa, October 14, 2021) – Provincial governments should sever their contracts to hold immigration detainees in provincial jails, where many experience abusive conditions, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today in opening a joint national campaign, #WelcomeToCanada. While Canadian authorities have released significant numbers of people from immigration detention since the onset of Covid-19 in March 2020, the proportion of those in provincial jails rather than immigration holding centers more than doubled in the six months following the onset of the pandemic.
Provincial jails in Canada are designed to hold people awaiting criminal court proceedings or serving criminal sentences of up to two years. Immigration detainees held in these jails – many of which are maximum-security facilities – are not only confined in more restrictive settings than those held in immigration holding centers, but they are also more likely to be detained for longer periods of time.
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