About half a million foreign nationals awaiting removal – amid the rise in deportations from Canada in 2024
There are about half a million foreign nationals in Canada waiting for removal, including almost 30,000 who are wanted by officials as well as some 21,000 who can’t be removed.
The Canada Border Services Agency said it had 485,359 people in its removal inventory as of Dec. 31, including 120,273 in Ontario and 197,029 in Quebec. About 123,000 were not assigned to any region.
Last year it also reported 16,860 enforced removals, an 11 per cent increase from 2023, reaching the highest level since 2019, when 11,276 people were removed from the country, according to the latest removal statistics released by the border agency on Tuesday.
The top 10 countries where these foreign nationals were sent back to were: Mexico (3,579); India (1,932); Colombia (956); Haiti (806); Romania (653); the U.S. (631); China (535); Venezuela (470); Pakistan (392); and Hungary (366).
“Removing individuals who do not have the right to enter or stay in Canada is essential to maintaining the integrity of Canada’s immigration program and to ensuring fairness for those who come to this country lawfully,” it said.
Among the people booted out of the country last year, 13,527 were failed refugees and 2,261 were foreign nationals removed for non-compliance of immigration laws. While 771 people were removed due to criminality, 89 were involved in organized crime.
Forty-four former protected people were forced to leave because they travelled back to the country from where they fled, and 145 were deported due to misrepresentation. The remaining 23 cases were unclassified.
Out of all removals last year, 1,176 deportees required escorts of border agents for public safety reasons. Escorted removals cost $13,000 on average.
As of the end of last year, there were 485,395 names in the border agency’s removal inventory: 404,206 requiring no action, including those awaiting asylum decisions; 20,722 classified as impossible to remove due to pending appeals; 29,936 labelled “wanted” and can’t be located; and 30,495 listed as in progress. Refugee claimants accounted for 27,140 of the active files.
The citizenships among the removal in-progress list include Mexican (7,806); Indian (4,947); American (1,813); Chinese (1,523); Haitian (980); Nigerian (922); Colombian (857); Pakistani (828); Chilean (512); and Brazilian (495). People from other countries make up the remaining one-third of the pool.
This article was first reported by The Star
