No One is Illegal Vancouver Submissions to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention June 2005
Detention of Asylum-seekers
Seeking asylum is a right, not a crime. But an increasing number of people, having been forced to flee their homes to escape persecution, are being placed behind bars on arrival in Canada. They are held in conditions of imprisonment that are fundamentally inhuman and degrading. Asylum-seekers in the Canada are liable to be stripped, shackled and sometimes verbally or physically abused. Many are confined in high-security jails and unlike Canadian citizens charged with the offences, are often excluded from bail and have no idea when they will be released. For example, approximately one quarter of the prison population at the Metro Toronto West Detention Centre, a maximum-security prison, are immigrants and refugees placed under a “deportation holdâ€, held without a criminal charge. Refugees and immigrants are being arbitrarily detained in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights of Freedoms section 7; “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.” On December 18, 1995, Nigerian Mike Akhinen died from medical neglect at Celebrity Inn, an Immigration Holding Centre outside of Toronto. His death highlights the situation of many refugees held in detention centres across Canada.
