Refugee Board: Immigration Detainees

refugee board: Many immigration detainees are held at the Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton, a maximum-security jail, where they are treated the same as sentenced criminals and those awaiting trial, according to Toronto Star. Anne-Marie Jackson / Toronto Star file photo The letter, which was spearheaded by immigration lawyers Clifford McCarten and Simon Wallace, comes on the heels of a scathing audit of long-term detention cases, released Friday, which identified systemic problems with how hearings have been conducted by members of a division of the Immigration and Refugee Board. In an open letter to federal immigration authorities, the lawyers describe the quasi-judicial body that conducts immigration detention hearings as a broken institution that cannot be trusted to make decisions about people's freedom. Immigration detainees are held indefinitely, often in maximum-security jails, by the Canada Border Services Agency. The Immigration and Refugee Board conducts hearings to review each detention after the first 48 hours, after seven days and every 30 days thereafter. The CBSA has the authority to detain non-citizens deemed a danger to the public or unlikely to appear for their deportation, or if their identity is in doubt. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.