The manner in which migrants are being handles has really been a major push into the
public eye recently as reports regarding the overcrowding as well as the unhygienic
conditions experienced in the American border imprisonment bodies. The Canadian
government has various ways in which they handle or deal with similar matters and issues
associated with immigration captives and this is by the implementation of various
immigration holding centers for holding various detainees as I have explained in this paper.
These immigration holding centers are used for keeping the people who come from
other foreign countries also known as the foreign nationals as well as the permanent residents
who have been given the authority to live in the United States of America with respect to specific
conditions. This work is usually handled performed by the Canada Border Services Agency
(CBSA).
One way that may cause someone to be kept in these immigration holding centers is the
possession of security threats. This happens when one is a threat to the security to both the
Canadian citizens and its government at large (Emerald, 2019). Another reason is when one is
waiting for their turn for the immigration process investigation to come, in this case, if your turn
to appear to the immigration process investigation is not likely to happen, then the body keep
you until your turn comes that’s when you are released. The Canadian Border Services Body has
various immigration holding centers in various towns such as Toronto which can keep one
hundred and nine people, Vancouver which is situated at the town’s airport and usually hold not
more than 24 detainees., Laval which also can keep one hundred and ninety five detainees while
the another center is in Qua.
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The CBSA body usually has usually consider the detainees’ health as well as their well-
being as very crucial aspects and that is why all the detainees in all the immigration holding
centers are served some meals and snacks each and every day. Those that require special diets
are always catered for. In terms of gender, males are usually held in separate housing while the
females are always held in separate houses. If there are any cases of mothers with children, they
are usually kept in one room together with their children. The CBSA body also reports that it
tries to decrease the kind of interaction between the criminal detainees who have threats to the
government and its people from the immigration detainees by keeping them in very separate
immigration holding centers and this is done the purpose of security issues (Bourbeau, 2019).
The CBSA body keeps a record of all the detainees kept in these immigration holding
centers and according to their resent report, they say that between the year 2017 and 2018 they
had kept a total of 6,509 detainees which showed an increase from the previous’ 4,248 detainees.
They also say that they had a total of 1,831 detainees who were kept in jails which was much
higher than the 2016-2017’s 971. They also say that the detainees, cases are usually handles at
different specific intervals and the first one is within the first 48 hours after detention, the second
one is within a period of seven days after detention and then the other one is after every thirty
days of detention until your case is fully resolved. The end result of all these case resolving is
usually either you are deported or released to interact with the other community people but again
under some conditions and in this the case of being held in the immigration holding centers has
no limit time of how long you stay in, it can always be 48 hours, three months or even five years.
According the CBSA records again, in the year 2017 to 2018, they reported that 3% of
the detainees were kept in the immigration holding centers for a period of more than ninety nine
days. At the same time, a total percentage of 47 were held within a period of 24 hours. The rest
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of the detainees were held at other places within period of between 25-48 hours while others at a
period of 40-99 days.
The executive director in the Canadian Council of Refugees who is known by the name
Janet Dench said that these detainees in the immigration holding centers are always provided
with enough amounts of foods as well as water for the held people (Kronick, 2018). At the same
time, these detainees usually have limited access to some amenities such as accessing the internet
which in one way or the other gives them chances to making calls or communicate with their
family members for the purpose of providing them with the necessary documents required.
In terms of health conditions of these detainees, the CBSA board has provided medical
and nursing facilities in the immigration holding centers. This allows these people to access
medical care in case they have health issues.
In conclusion, from the paper we see several ways in which the Canadian government
controls various detention centers for holding various detainees. To help in this task, the
government has a special body known as the Canada Border Services Agency which manages
these immigration holding centers to ensure the well-being and security of all the detainees is
ensure and secured. This is seen from the way they treat and keep different genders in different
housing as well as keeping the criminal detainees from the immigrant detainees for the purpose
of security issues.
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References
Bourbeau, P. (2019). Detention and immigration: Practices, crimmigration, and
norms. Migration Studies, 7(1), 83-99.
Emerald Bensadoun (2019, July 7). The Canadian Press https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/how-
immigration-detention-centres-work-in-canada-
1.4497688
Kronick, R., Cleveland, J., & Rousseau, C. (2018). “Do you want to help or go to war?”: Ethical
challenges of critical research in immigration detention in
Canada. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 6(2),
644-660.