Canada: Hard to deport criminal migrants
TORONTO, Oct. 4 (UPI) — Canada is home to dozens of foreign criminals who may never be deported because their own countries won't take them back, officials said.
An Iranian held in a Canadian jail has racked up 23 convictions since 1992, and has been on an immigration hold since 2004 with the Canada Border Services Agency trying to deport him, the QMI Agency reported.
Mehdi Karimi-Arshad, 50, was granted refugee status after coming to Canada in 1989. Since arriving, he has been convicted of bank robbery and other crimes, the report said.
“There have been ongoing and continuing problems arranging for Karimi-Arshad's removal to Iran,” Judge Russel Zinn said in a deciding not to release the suspect from jail. “It appears that Iranian authorities are not fully cooperating with attempts to return the respondent to his country of birth.”
He isn't the only Iranian Canada would like to deport and police told QMI about other criminals with lengthy arrest records who should be deported, including 10 Cubans, six Iranians and several others from Iraq, Vietnam and Liberia.
Police did not name the crooks but said one Liberian man was charged last year for allegedly holding a gun to a Toronto officer's head.
“Its a revolving door,” a street officer said. “As soon as we release them, they're back in jail again.”
