Immigration, Migrant Workers, Refugee News

Posted by admin on Mar 29th, 2015

Number of temporary foreign workers tripled in Canada between 2002 and 2012

The number of foreign workers in Canada tripled between 2002 and 2012 — although they still made up less than two per cent of the overall labour force, the parliamentary budget office reported Thursday.

Read more:
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/number-of-temporary-foreign-workers-tripled-in-canada-between-2002-and-2012-1.2276261

Canada Is Spending Millions Keeping Immigration Detainees in Jail

“Today is Family Day—I miss my dad,” said Melika Mojarrab, the teenage daughter of Masoud Hajivand, who has been detained in Lindsay for the past eight months while the government attempts to deport him to Iran. Hajivand, who publicly converted to Christianity from Islam, says he fears imprisonment, torture, or even death if he returns to Iran. “If Canada deports him to Iran, I will not be able to see him again,” Mojarrab said. “His life is in extreme danger.”

Read more:
http://www.vice.com/read/no-crime-no-problem-canada-is-spending-millions-keeping-immigration-detainees-in-jail-786

Supreme Court Ruling Could Alter Landscape for Refugee Advocates

Every day Francisco Rico, co-director of the FJC Refugee Centre in Toronto, gets calls from undocumented migrants wondering how to get to Canada. Some have tracked his organization down on the Internet; others heard about it through friends. Their constant refrain: ‘We want to come to Canada and we don’t have any papers.’ But in offering advice, he could be committing a crime under a controversial section of the 2002 Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that critics say is written far too broadly and puts people who legitimately help refugees at risk of prosecution.

Read more:
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2015/03/14/supreme-court-ruling-could-alter-landscape-for-refugee-advocates.html

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Migrant Justice News

Posted by admin on Feb 16th, 2015

VIDEO: “Guantánamo of the Pacific”: Australian Asylum Seekers Wage Hunger Strike at Offshore Detention Site

A massive hunger strike is underway at what some are calling “the Guantánamo Bay of the Pacific.” TSome have barricaded themselves behind the detention center’s high wire fences; others have resorted to increasingly drastic measures such as drinking washing detergent, swallowing razor blades, and even sewing their mouths shut to protest their confinement.

Watch Democracy Now video here: http://www.democracynow.org/2015/1/22/guantanamo_of_the_pacific_australian_asylum

Are you already violating the feds’ new anti-terror bill?

Harper introduced Bill C-51, a sweeping piece of legislation that covers everything from what you’re allowed to say and write to who can board a plane, what happens to your tax information and how long you can be detained without charge.

 http://globalnews.ca/news/1803553/are-you-already-violating-the-feds-new-anti-terror-bill/

My call from a former hunger striker inside the Lindsay Superjail

In recent months I’ve been receiving collect calls from a man who’s being held at the Central East Correctional Centre, also known as the Lindsay Superjail. He’s one of about 200 immigration detainees who began hunger strikes at the jail in September 2013 to protest lengthy detentions and seemingly endless immigration hearings. More than a year later, many of them are still in a maximum-security purgatory that sounds like hell on earth.

https://nowtoronto.com/news/my-call-from-a-former-hunger-striker-inside-the-lindsay-supe/

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Migrant Justice News

Posted by admin on Jan 22nd, 2015

1) Video: Comedian’s take on immigrants stealing jobs in Canada https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4kvY9bVDi0&feature=youtu.be

2) Video: Migrant baby Alpha born in jail, still there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9pgveUowjw

3) A bad year for Canadian citizenship “The reform has made it possible for citizenship to be withdrawn at the whim of politicians. In the year to come, it will become clear which citizens will be targeted for removal and who will be extended the privilege to belong.”. Read more: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/01/03/a_bad_year_for_canadian_citizenship.html

4) Border Services ramping up arrests, advocates say “Nearly 600 people in the Pacific region were removed between April and November. Community groups who work with undocumented migrants are reporting an increase in arrests of workers by the Canada Border Services Agency in recent months.” Read more http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Border+Services+ramping+arrests+advocates/10461322/story.html#ixzz3LeqyCzit

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Community Alert: CBSA increasing raids

Posted by admin on Dec 23rd, 2014

en español

stop_the_raids_nola

We have been hearing about an increased number of Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) raids at workplaces around the Lower Mainland. Over the past month we have received phone calls from Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey and East Vancouver about CBSA visits and raids at workplaces. People within prisons have also called, saying “the prison is getting busier” and “there are lots of people in and out,” suggesting greater CBSA enforcement, detention and deportation to meet ‘quotas’ as the year’s end nears.

For those in our communities who are at risk of CBSA enforcement, let us know if and how we can support you in staying safe. For anyone who witnesses CBSA vehicles or CBSA inland enforcement teams, please contact us. If you work in a workplace where you know of undocumented workers, please ask how best to support in case of a CBSA raid (safe exits, emergency contacts etc). We are deeply troubled and angered and saddened by these raids and invite others to join in the movement to end CBSA enforcement in our communities.

In struggle,
No one Is Illegal and Sanctuary Health
Phone: 778 885 0040 and 604 315 7725
Email: noii-van@resist.ca and sanctuaryhealthvancouver@gmail.com

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Stop the racial profiling and arrests! Access to translink without fear!

Posted by admin on Sep 28th, 2014

Wednesday October 15th from 6:00-8:00
YWCA 733 Beatty St, Vancouver, Unceded Coast Salish Territories
RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/1469256423338435/

Every day in the Greater Vancouver area, at various skytrain stations and bus stops, transit police check fares and issue tickets. And every day, some of those people who cannot show proof of purchase are reported to Canada Border Services Agency.

Three hundred and twenty eight people were reported to CBSA by Transit Police last year, one-in-five of whom faced a subsequent immigration investigation. One of these people was Lucia Vega Jiménez, who later committed suicide in a detention center.
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