More than 29,000 foreign fugitives are at large across the country, according to a report by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). The agency’s “wanted inventory” includes foreign nationals who have been convicted of crimes. This information was first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter on October 20.
The CBSA’s report, presented to the House of Commons public accounts committee, outlined the agency’s three types of “national removal inventories” – “monitoring inventory,” “stay inventory,” and “wanted inventory” – and their sizes as of the fourth quarter of 2022–23. The “wanted inventory” contains 29,248 cases of fugitives, while another 10,041 foreigners who are banned from Canada have already been deported, as stated by Blacklock’s Reporter.
The CBSA report clarified that the “wanted inventory” includes cases that are under review to determine if a warrant is required, as well as cases where a warrant has already been issued for the arrest, detention, and removal of a foreign national. The complexity of cases in the “removals working” inventory has been steadily increasing since 2011, requiring more effort from the agency to enforce removal orders.
In the “monitoring inventory,” there are 168,076 individuals, including asylum claimants waiting for a final ruling from the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB). The government issues a “conditional departure order” when a claim is made, which can only be enforced if the claim is denied. The “monitoring inventory” also includes individuals who have received a positive IRB decision and are waiting for permanent residence status.
The “stay inventory” consists of 20,030 individuals, including cases that are undergoing litigation, cases awaiting a pre-removal risk assessment, and cases with temporary suspension or deferral of removal. This inventory also includes cases where a foreign national, who was denied admission to Canada, is being held in jail.
Since the release of a 2021 audit report titled “Immigration Removals,” which revealed that the CBSA had lost track of 2,800 foreign criminals in Canada, Members of Parliament (MPs) have been requesting regular updates on the number of fugitives. During her testimony, Auditor General Karen Hogan emphasized the importance of managing criminal cases for the sake of public safety.
The audit report stated that the CBSA’s approach to managing removal cases had not resulted in the timely removal of inadmissible foreign nationals. It highlighted that 70% or possibly more criminal cases were not reviewed each year and continued to be unresolved year after year. Enforcing deportation orders, even for cases where the CBSA had not lost track of the individuals, could take years.
The audit estimated that around 1,500 cases had been inactive for at least two years, with most of them not being worked on for several years. The CBSA spends $34 million annually on deportation programs. In a 2021 report, the Commons public accounts committee emphasized the importance of Canadians knowing how many foreign fugitives were at large and stated that the majority of foreign nationals subject to enforceable removal orders were not removed promptly, thus compromising the integrity of the immigration system and public safety.
Concerns about the CBSA’s inadequate tracking of foreign fugitives were raised as early as 2014 during hearings of the Senate national security committee. Senators questioned why the agency was unable to deport individuals who had no right to stay in Canada. Former Yukon senator Daniel Lang expressed his perplexity over the tolerance towards this issue.