41,000 facing deportation go `missing' in Canada

Toronto, May 7 (IANS) Canadian authorities have no clue on the whereabouts of 41,000-odd people who face deportation from the country.

According to a report by attorney general Sheila Fraser, which was tabled in parliament Tuesday, 63,000 people currently face orders for removal from Canada.

Only 22,000 of them are known to the Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA), which is responsible for stopping and detaining those who entered the country illegally.

But the agency knows nothing about the remaining 41,000 people to enforce removal orders against them.

On average, 11,000 people have been removed from Canada during the past four years. Last year, this figure touched 12,636, including 1,900 criminals who posed a threat to public safety.

Blaming the CBSA for the situation, the report says the agency has no proper system to keep track of such people, nor does it investigate a majority of these cases.

Responding to the report on the CBSA that falls under him, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day expressed concern about its failure to keep tabs on illegal people in Canada.

Promising tighter controls for enforcing removal orders, the minister said: 'We don't have what's called exit controls in Canada. There needs to be a better system to track people who have been told they're inadmissible and many of those people leave of their own accord but they don't report it and that's one of the recommendations we want to pursue.'