http://www.newsmax.com/international/canada_illegal_immigrants/2008/05/06/93932.html
Thousands Ordered De****ted From Canada Are Unaccounted For
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
TORONTO -- Canada's border control agency doesn't know the whereabouts
of 41,000 people ordered to leave the country, a national government
watchdog agency said Tuesday.
The re****t by Auditor General Sheila Fraser criticized the Canada
Border Services Agency for failing to monitor observance of its
removal decisions. The agency said in the re****t that it agreed with
all of the auditor's recommendations for improvements.
Fraser's re****t said the agency lacked contact information for 41,000
of the 63,000 people ordered to leave the country as of September
2007. It said the majority ordered de****ted were rejected refugee
applicants and didn't pose "a very high risk to the public."
The re****t said the agency removed about 12,600 individuals in 2006
and 2007, including 1,900 criminals who "posed a high risk to Canada."
The border agency has the power to detain foreign nationals and
permanent residents who are considered a risk or danger to the public
and to de****t people ruled ineligible to enter Canada.
Canada has long prided itself for opening its doors to immigrants and
asylum-seekers but critics have long complained that the United
States' northern neighbor is too lax on illegal immigration.
Parliament member Ujjal Dosanjh of the opposition Liberal party
criticized the government for not doing more. "How do we know that all
41,000 are harmless? We don't know," Dosanjh said.
The re****t said the precise number of people remaining illegally was
impossible to determine due in part to the fact that the government
does not record departures from Canada.
Some of the monitoring problems were traced to an aborted plan to
replace a computerized case management system, originally intended to
be in place three years ago.
"As a result, the agency's ability to track individuals in the
detention and removal process remains limited," the re****t said.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the government was acting on
Fraser's advice.
"The CBSA has already put in place quite a few of the recommendations
that she has talked about, so we're improving. It's not perfect yet
but it's a big improvement over what it has been," Day said.
|
