The Canadian government has admitted that it has lost track of two-thirds of the 50,000 migrants targeted for deportation orders, most of them failed asylum seekers.
The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) has lost track of 34,700 migrants, mainly failed asylum seekers, up for deportation, a report from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada revealed this week.
“The accumulation of enforceable removal orders is an ongoing problem within the Canada Border Services Agency,” the report stated. It added: “Most of the measures have been enforceable for many years and have involved, among others, criminals and failed asylum seekers.”
The report slammed the CBSA for having “poor quality” data and lamented “basic weaknesses in case management, which led to avoidable delays in the treatment of thousands of cases”.
According to Le Figaro, Canada has seen a surge in asylum applications in recent years, reporting 50,000 requests in 2017, 55,000 in 2018, and 64,000 in 2019.
While Canada has taken in tens of thousands of Syrian migrants following the migrant crisis of 2015, the country has also had a major issue with migrants crossing the border illegally from the United States, primarily Haitians who have had their asylum status revoked in the USA.
Earlier this year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a reversal in policy shortly before Canada closed its border with the United States, due to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
Calling it a “temporary measure”, Trudeau stated that the closure of the border would also see asylum seekers coming into the country through unofficial border crossings would be rejected and returned.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said asylum seekers would not be detained by authorities but would be turned around and sent back to the USA.
Mass migration has had a profound impact on Canada in recent decades and has been the main driver of population growth in the country.
In last year’s federal election 41 electoral districts in Canada were now ethnic minority-majority areas, eight more than the previous election just four years before.