Immigrant Detainees: Health Care and Flight Risk

immigrant detainees: In addition, a community supervision program will be developed for released detainees, according to The Waterloo Record. The Canada Border Services Agency holds people who are considered a flight risk or a danger to the public and those whose identities cannot be confirmed. The federal government will also move ahead with plans to expand the range of alternatives to locking up immigrants, with the aim of making detention a last resort, said Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale Monday during a visit to the aging Laval facility. But the Canadian Red Cross Society has found numerous shortcomings at facilities for immigrant detainees, including overcrowding and lack of mental health care. The Red Cross said the border agency detained 10,088 immigrants — almost one-fifth of them refugee claimants — in 2013-14 in a variety of facilities, including federal holding centres and provincial and municipal jails. Newcomers are often held in provincial jails or police facilities alongside suspected gang members and violent offenders. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.