Federal government plans on incarcerating migrants in its penitentiaries

"We think it is inconsistent with basic Canadian values and the betrayal of the notion of our country as a nation of refuge," said Allan Rock, also a member of that organization.

World Refugee & Migration Council is one of the groups that campaigned alongside Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to convince provinces to end their immigration detention agreements with the federal government.

The vast majority of the 71,988 migrants detained by CBSA between 2012 and 2023 were deemed to be flight risks, meaning the border agency believed they would not appear for immigration processes, such as a removal.

"And by the way, if there is a concern about public safety, there are federal holding facilities which can accommodate up to almost 500 people now between British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario, and those are, in essence, medium security jails."

Over the years, migrants have been sent to provincial correctional facilities when there was no federal centre in the province where they were detained, when they were considered high-risk or when they suffered mental health issues.

Recently CBSA said that now it only detains migrants in jails — in provinces where that measure still exists — when there are "serious concerns about danger to the public, or to other detainees, or staff."