THE End Immigration Detention Network is calling on the federal government to end indefinite immigration detention following another historic ruling by the Ontario Superior Court in the case of long-term detainee Kashif Ali. The End Immigration Detention Network (EIDN), working with detainees, demands a 90-day limit on detentions, an end to maximum-security imprisonment, and a revamp of the judicial oversight process, as initial steps to ending immigration detention.
“The court found that there was no basis for Kashif’s detention and ordered his release,” said Jared Will, Ali’s lawyer, on Friday. “The judgment is a definitive rejection of indefinite detention.”
This unprecedented decision marks the first time the provincial courts have made a ruling in the case of a federal detainee brought​ by the End Immigration Detention Network. In the previous two instances, the Canada Border Services Agency avoided a ruling by deporting the detainees in question.
“Detained indefinitely, separated from their families, immigration detainees are running out of time. Fifteen people have died since 2000, the majority of them in Ontario prisons,” said Mac Scott, an EIDN representative.
On May 15, the Federal Court of Canada will be hearing arguments brought forward by EIDN, along with long-term detainee Alvin Brown, for a 90-day limit to immigration detentions. Following an historic hunger strike by 191 detainees in 2013 and backed by demands from the many currently held in jails on administrative grounds, the End Immigration Detention Network has consistently called for a regulatory limit on the period of detention.