[Excerpt from Executive Summary]
This study provides an overview and evaluation of the Canadian immigration detention system, and its human rights impact on asylum seekers and refugees. The study relies on information gathered by the author during tours of immigration holding facilities and provincial prisons, interviews with immigration stakeholders (lawyers, legal aid, non-governmental organizations, UNHCR legal officers, Red-Cross representatives, federal and provincial officials), and the review of data and reports from governmental agencies, human rights organizations and academic literature.