Canada lost track of 41,000 migrants told to leave: watchdog
May 6 05:21 PM US/Eastern
Authorities have lost track of 41,000 people ordered to leave Canada, and in most cases have stopped looking for them, said a federal watchdog Tuesday.
In a scathing report, Auditor General Sheila Fraser said most of the missing were failed asylum seekers allowed into the country on temporary permits while their immigration or refugee cases were assessed.
However, some of them "may pose a threat to public safety and security," she added.
Fraser noted an improved enforcement since her last audit in 2003, when responsibility for removals was transferred from Citizenship and Immigration Canada to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
In 2006-2007, Canada Border Services Agency removed about 12,600 individuals, including 1,900 criminals who "posed a high risk to Canada," she said in her report.
But "due in part to a lack of exit controls, there is a growing number of individuals whose whereabouts is unknown and who might remain in Canada illegally," Fraser said.
As of September 2007, the Canada Border Services Agency determined that there were about 63,000 individuals with either enforceable removal orders or outstanding immigration warrants for removal.
The agency said it knew the whereabouts of 22,000 of the individuals, but "the remaining 41,000 cases are individuals with immigration warrants for removal, whose whereabouts are unknown to the agency," said the report.
The agency said it did not investigate most of these cases because "this could mean devoting resources in an attempt to find individuals who have already left the country."
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day told reporters: "The CBSA has already put in place quite a few of the recommendations that she (Fraser) has talked about so we're improving.
"It's not perfect yet but it's a big improvement over what it has been," he said.
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