Cost Of Deporting Someone From Canada Could Hit $500,000 : Immigration Lawyer

Almost 160,000 foreign nationals ordered deported remain in Canada, according to federal data obtained by a Vancouver immigration lawyer.


It can cost up to $500,000 to send a foreign citizen home if a chartered plane and police and medical escorts are necessary, according to the Canadian Border Services Agency. The average cost of removing someone without an escort is $1,500, while escorted removals average $15,000, the CBSA reports.

“This is the first time ever, to my knowledge, that we know the active-removal inventory in Canada,” says lawyer Richard Kurland, who received the numbers from the agency after an access to information request.

Warrants have been issued for the deportation of more than 41,000 people who have disappeared while enmeshed in the deportation process, according to the CBSA data.
Of nearly 18,000 foreigners in the final stage of deportation from Canada, two to nine per cent are criminals, Kurland says.

The remaining 100,000 are still in earlier stages, fighting the deportation orders. “They’re clinging to the delay vine,” Kurland says. “As long as their grip is good, they can remain in Canada for years.”

Some of those 100,000 have received stays of deportation orders in court, or have requested an assessment of the risk they’d face if returned home. Others have applied for permanent residency or refugee status.

The CBSA was not immediately available to comment.

Source : Canwest - November 2009