File photo of protesters carrying signs last year calling for independent investigation into Lucia Vega Jimenez’s death.
Photograph by: Arlen Redekop , PNG
METRO
VANCOUVER -- The Canada Border Services Agency is ignoring the
recommendations of a coroner’s jury concerning treatment of immigration
detainees, and doing so with impunity because it is not subject to
independent oversight, a group of refugee advocates said Thursday.
The jury at the coroner’s inquest into the 2013 suicide of Lucia Vega Jimenez at the CBSA’s Vancouver airport holding centre made a number of recommendations last October.
This included moving the immigration holding centre to an above-ground location staffed by CBSA personnel, giving detainees access to lawyers, family members and community groups, improved access to telephone and Internet service, using handcuffs and shackles only when necessary, and establishing a civilian oversight body to investigate critical incidents in CBSA custody.
While the CBSA has made some renovations to its Vancouver holding centre to reduce the risk of suicide and placed an officer on site part-time, it has taken no action on any of the jury’s recommendations that would improve detention conditions and may in fact be making them worse, said Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees.
Dench spoke as part of a coalition of advocacy groups, which included the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, the BC Civil Liberties Association and the Latinos in Action Society, to draw attention to the issue.
“Immigration detainees are not criminals. They should not be held in prison-like conditions. So we were concerned to learn that recently CBSA has established a new national requirement to have common bathrooms in detention centres as a response to the death of Ms. Vega Jimenez,” Dench said, noting that this will require major, expensive renovations or the physical moving of the CBSA’s Toronto holding centre, which will be the first to undergo the change.
Josh Paterson of the BC Civil Liberties Association noted that no steps have been taken toward creating an independent oversight body for the CBSA, there are no plans to build a new immigration holding centre in Vancouver and that the federal government recently put the private security contract for the airport holding centre back out to tender.
“The inquest evidence made clear that the Vancouver airport immigration holding centre has been plagued with problems and fails to meet basic international human rights standards,” Paterson said. “Instead of doubling down on a broken system, it’s time for CBSA and the federal government to shut the airport holding centre down.”
Rocco Trigueros, of the group Mexicans Living in Vancouver, said he has been trying for months to set up a meeting with CBSA personnel to discuss how Vancouver’s Latino community can help detainees, with no success.
The CBSA did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
tcarman@vancouversun.com
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The jury at the coroner’s inquest into the 2013 suicide of Lucia Vega Jimenez at the CBSA’s Vancouver airport holding centre made a number of recommendations last October.
This included moving the immigration holding centre to an above-ground location staffed by CBSA personnel, giving detainees access to lawyers, family members and community groups, improved access to telephone and Internet service, using handcuffs and shackles only when necessary, and establishing a civilian oversight body to investigate critical incidents in CBSA custody.
While the CBSA has made some renovations to its Vancouver holding centre to reduce the risk of suicide and placed an officer on site part-time, it has taken no action on any of the jury’s recommendations that would improve detention conditions and may in fact be making them worse, said Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees.
Dench spoke as part of a coalition of advocacy groups, which included the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, the BC Civil Liberties Association and the Latinos in Action Society, to draw attention to the issue.
“Immigration detainees are not criminals. They should not be held in prison-like conditions. So we were concerned to learn that recently CBSA has established a new national requirement to have common bathrooms in detention centres as a response to the death of Ms. Vega Jimenez,” Dench said, noting that this will require major, expensive renovations or the physical moving of the CBSA’s Toronto holding centre, which will be the first to undergo the change.
Josh Paterson of the BC Civil Liberties Association noted that no steps have been taken toward creating an independent oversight body for the CBSA, there are no plans to build a new immigration holding centre in Vancouver and that the federal government recently put the private security contract for the airport holding centre back out to tender.
“The inquest evidence made clear that the Vancouver airport immigration holding centre has been plagued with problems and fails to meet basic international human rights standards,” Paterson said. “Instead of doubling down on a broken system, it’s time for CBSA and the federal government to shut the airport holding centre down.”
Rocco Trigueros, of the group Mexicans Living in Vancouver, said he has been trying for months to set up a meeting with CBSA personnel to discuss how Vancouver’s Latino community can help detainees, with no success.
The CBSA did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
tcarman@vancouversun.com
===
Click here to report a typo or visit vancouversun.com/typo.
Is there more to this story? We'd like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. CLICK HERE or go to vancouversun.com/moretothestory
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