International Law

Violent Refugee Released

By immlawyer

Paula Simons writes on a violent refugee, Samuel Martin Luin, who after completing his sentence for raping a woman in Edmonton, was released from detention by Immigration Division Member Paul Kyba. It would appear that the CBSA failed to apply for a danger opinion which would have allowed his removal from Canada:

This July, the Immigration and Refugee Board convened a deportation hearing, where Luin was ordered deported. But deporting a refugee isn't simple. Ethically, it's tricky to send someone who's been granted asylum back into a war zone. And most of Luin's family are now in Ethiopia. To deport Luin, the minister of immigration,Diane Finley, would have to sign a document called a danger opinion, effectively ruling that the danger Luin poses to the Canadian public outweighs the danger he'd face in Sudan.

The process of getting a danger opinion is long and cumbersome. First, Canada Border Services has to complete the research and paperwork to support deportation. Then, the person facing deportation has the chance to put together a legal rebuttal. Then, the paperwork goes to Ottawa for ministerial consideration. It can take anywhere from six months to two years to get a ministerial decision.

Yet even though Luin was due to be released on Nov. 23, Canada Border Services didn't file an application for a danger opinion until Nov. 13, 10 days before Luin was to hit the streets.

And so, on Dec. 3, the Immigration and Refugee Board released Luin from detention, ruling he was neither a flight risk nor a public danger.

It was unfair and unconstitutional to hold him indefinitely, said the IRB, just because Stockwell Day's Department of Public Safety failed to do its job.

"The minister is about 16 months behind in doing what the minister ought to have started ... a year and four months ago," said Paul Kyba of the Immigration and Refugee Board. "... I see no excuse, I see no valid reason why the minister chose to delay this process. This is not vigilance by the minister."

However, even given the failure on the part of the CBSA to act on the necessary paperwork to remove Samuel Martin Luin, it is somewhat disturbing that the ID released Luin without even the posting of a cash bond. Luin was subject to report to immigration once a month -- perhaps not surprisingly, Luin failed to report and went underground.

Luin has now been taken into custody by the Edmonton police acting on tips from the public.

Full post as published by Canadian Immigration Blawg on December 16, 2007 (boomark / email).