2020 Spring Reports of the Auditor General of Canada to the Parliament of Canada—Auditor General finds that many immigration removals stretch out for years

2020 Spring Reports of the Auditor General of Canada to the Parliament of CanadaAuditor General finds that many immigration removals stretch out for years

Ottawa, 8 July 2020—A report from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada tabled today in Parliament concludes that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) did not remove the majority of individuals who were subject to enforceable removal orders as soon as possible to protect the integrity of the immigration system and maintain public safety.

The Agency’s efforts were hindered by poor data quality and basic flaws in case management, resulting in avoidable delays for thousands of cases. Deficiencies in information sharing with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) also delayed cases.

For example, the audit found that CBSA was unaware that it should have been monitoring 1,500 removal orders for enforcement. A further 2,300 orders were delayed because of the poor flow of information between IRCC and CBSA. The Agency also had thousands of files that were left untouched for years, with some being high priority removals. It had also lost track of 34,700 individuals and was not conducting the regular follow-ups to locate these individuals—that means opening the file at least every 3 years, or once a year for people with criminal histories.

The 2020 Spring Reports of the Auditor General of Canada—Report 1—Immigration Removals is available on the Office of the Auditor General of Canada website.

- 30 -

Experts from the Office of the Auditor General of CanadaOAG will be available via teleconference, from 10:00 am to 11:00 am (Eastern daylight timeEDT), to answer questions from the media. Phone: 1-866-805-7923 / 613-960-7518. Access Code: 3907784#

Journalists are invited to contact Media Relations to request an interview. Due to COVID-19, there will be no press conference.

Please visit our Media Room for more information.