Rally at Lindsay jail calls for end to indefinite immigration detention

Bus loads of friends, families and supporters of immigration detainees endured the cold and gathered at Lindsay’s maximum-security jail from several cities across Ontario on December 14, with one demand: "End Indefinite Immigration Detention." Inside the prison, over 100 immigration detainees are on a hunger-fast protesting their incarceration in a maximum-security prison, and calling for their release.

"Jailing migrants for no crime but that of being born elsewhere is unjust, and indefensible!" says End Immigration Detention Network member Tings Chak, at the rally in Christie Pits Park before nearly 200 people boarded buses to Lindsay jail. "Jailing people indefinitely, with no end in sight is utterly inhumane."

Hunger strikers protest indefinite detentions in Lindsay, Ontario

"We are taking a stand. We want Immigration to know what’s going on. We want the public to contact Immigration Canada. We need the Canadian public to put pressure on the Immigration minister so they can stop this lengthy and cruel and unusual detentions." -- Martin Sisay, from inside Lindsay’s maximum-security prison

"I missed three of my sons birthdays, I missed three anniversaries with my wife…I can not see myself here being detained indefinitely and thinking about them. That will drive me crazy. So I have to keep it out of sight and out of mind. How inhumane is that. I am a father and I am a husband. Should I even be allowed to feel like this." -- Amin Mjasiri, from inside Lindsay’s maximum-security prison