By Hanna Gros

Despite its reputation as a refugee-welcoming and multicultural country, Canada detains thousands of people on immigration-related grounds every year in often abusive conditions. This includes many fleeing persecution and seeking protection in Canada. Based on interviews with former immigration detainees and their relatives, mental health experts, academics, lawyers, civil society representatives, and government officials, “I Didn’t Feel Like a Human in There”, a report by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, documents how people in immigration detention are regularly handcuffed, shackled, and held with little to no contact with the outside world. The report finds that many are held in provincial jails with the regular jail population and even subjected to solitary confinement. Canadian law does not establish time limits on detention and immigration detainees can be held for months or years. Many immigration detainees develop suicidal thoughts as they begin to lose hope that they will be released. Individuals with psychosocial disabilities experience discrimination throughout the immigration detention process. They are more likely to be detained in provincial jails rather than immigration holding centers, and many also face significant barriers to release with stricter release conditions. The report calls on the Canadian authorities to gradually abolish immigration detention. Under no circumstances should a person for immigration-related reasons be treated in a punitive manner, including being subjected to solitary confinement, or detained in facilities used for criminal law enforcement, such as jails, or in jail-like facilities.

New York: Human Rights Watch, 2021. 125p.