TORONTO: About 2,000 Indians were expelled from Canada last year, a record number.
The number of Indians forced to leave the country in 2024 was a record high at 1,932, according to citizenship expulsion data provided to the Hindustan Times by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
In fact, this number was more than 50% higher than 2023’s 1,129 cases. Indians will account for 11.5% of those forcibly deported in 2024, up from 7.5% in 2023. It is also triple the number recorded five years ago in 2019, when 625 or 5.6% of the total were Indian nationals.
The number of removals carried out by the CBSA increased from 15,124 in 2023 to 16,781 last year.
The group with the most migration was from Mexico, with 3,286 people in 2023 and 3,579 in 2024.
“The timely removal of inadmissible aliens plays a critical role in supporting the integrity of Canada’s immigration system,” said CBSA spokesperson Jacqueline Roby.
“Incidences involving public safety, organized crime, human rights abuses and crime are considered a top priority for the safety and security of Canada and its people,” she added.
The agency will carry out the deletion based on its risk management regime. “To ensure procedural fairness, the process incorporates multiple steps and the CBSA will only act on exclusion orders when all legal avenues that could sustain the exclusion have been exhausted. ,” Roby said.
He said the CBSA has a legal obligation under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) to expel as soon as possible all aliens who are inadmissible to Canada and have a removal order in place. .
Deportation under certain circumstances does not mean the individual cannot attempt to return to Canada, but the process will become more expensive this spring.
In January, the Canadian government announced it would increase fees for deportees who wish to return home.
The CBSA said in a release on January 3 that under the new cost recovery framework, fees will increase from approximately C$1,500 ($1,035) to more than C$12,800 ($8,833) for accompanied removals to C$3,800. It said it would be adjusted to just over the Canadian dollar ($2,622) for unaccompanied travel, regardless of destination.
The measure will come into effect in April.
“Individuals removed from Canada must pay for their own travel expenses. If an illegal immigrant is unable or unwilling to pay, the CBSA will cover those costs to ensure timely removal. “If an individual who has been expelled at government expense attempts to return to Canada, the cost will be recovered by the Canadian government,” the statement said.
According to the report, the full removal cost includes purchasing airline tickets, conducting removal interviews, obtaining travel documents, arranging removal, case management, partnership and liaison services, and averages approximately 490,000 yen. It added that a removal cost of C$7,100 ($343,052) will be recovered annually from foreign nationals applying to return to Canada.
