Detainee dies in immigration custody on Christmas Day in Surrey, B.C.

Border officials say a detainee at an immigration holding centre in Surrey, B.C., has died after being found unresponsive on Christmas Day.

Canada Border Services Agency said in a statement that first responders were called to the centre, where staff attempted resuscitation.

But "all efforts to revive the detainee were unsuccessful," read the statement, and the detainee was pronounced dead by the first responders.

It said the person's family have been contacted, but their identity will not be released due to privacy considerations.

The statement says Surrey RCMP and the B.C. Coroners Service are now investigating the circumstances surrounding the detainee's death.

Provincial authorities are tasked with investigating all deaths in CBSA custody. The CBSA will also conduct a review of the incident.

"The health and safety of those in our care is of paramount importance to the CBSA. We take this responsibility very seriously," it says.

According to human rights advocates, between April 2019 and March 2020, almost 9,000 people were in immigration detention in Canada, including 138 infants and children.

Since 2000, at least 16 people have died in these detention centres.

Several B.C.-based migration advocacy groups reiterated their call to the Canadian government to end immigration detentions in a statement released Thursday in response to the recent death. 

"We are angry and saddened, but not surprised, to learn of the death on Christmas Day of another person in Canada Border Services Agency detention," said the statement, released jointly by Sanctuary Health, Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture, Migrante BC, and Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights. 

"As long as the CBSA continues to detain migrants, deaths in detention will continue."