By failed refugees they mean asylum seekers who have been denied asylum. And, Canada has 44,000 of them roaming free in the land! But, oh well, only a few of them pose any threat!
From Canada.com:
The House of Commons’ public safety committee has issued a report recommending the government consider the use of electronic ankle bracelets as a way to curb the number of denied refugee claimants who fail to comply with removal orders.
Opposition critics, however, say expanding the use of such technology for immigration purposes would be a waste of money since most rejected immigrants and failed refugee claimants pose “little or no risk” to the public.
I guess they don’t consider mooching on social services and competing for jobs a threat to the public!
The committee’s report cited the testimony earlier this year of Peter Hill, director general of post-border programs at the Canada Border Services Agency, which has the responsibility of enforcing the removal of people deemed inadmissible to Canada. Hill testified that there were 44,000 individuals in the country with outstanding arrest warrants and whose current whereabouts were unknown. [of course one flaw in this idea is that they can’t find the 44,000 to put bracelets on them!—ed]
“By and large, the majority of them — 80 per cent of those cases — are failed refugee claimants without any criminality or security concerns,” he told the committee. “They have absconded — they have not shown up for an immigration process or they have not shown up for their removal — so we have warrants for their arrest for removal.”
There is another way to look at those numbers —- 20% (8,800) are criminals!
The article at Canada.com goes on:
Still, the committee, which is chaired by Conservative MP Kevin Sorenson, went ahead and recommended that the Canada Border Services Agency “review the use and cost effectiveness of electronic monitoring with the aim of reducing the occurrence of inadmissible individuals who are not presenting themselves for removal.”
Makes me wonder how many failed asylum seekers are wandering around the US!
This is our 99th post on Canada. For our whole Canada category, go here.