Amnesty International Canada welcomes the Government of Saskatchewan’s decision to end immigration detention in provincial jails as of September 30th. The announcement was made last Friday. At the time, Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Minister Christine Tell said that 16 people were held on an immigration hold in a Saskatchewan jail last year.

A news release from Amnesty Canada says this is a significant move by the province because immigration detention has no place in a welcoming and rights-respecting country. By September, the practice will have already ended in British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Alberta and it will end in Manitoba in 2024. The human rights organization is calling on the federal government to cancel the remaining provincial immigration detention contracts.