Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Activists Get Inside Surrey’s New Migrant Detention Center


Jeff Shantz


No borders, prison abolition, and anti-police organizers managed to gain access to the new migrant detention center on 76 Avenue at 130 Street in Surrey British Columbia (Unceded Coast Salish territories). Inside they disrupted a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) training session for guards and put up a “Stop Deportations, Migrant Justice” banner visible to pedestrians and motorists outside. The action was part of the Multi-city Day of Action against Migrant Detention in Canada. October 3, 2019.


The new migrant detention center in Surrey is a structure of repression, containment, and state violence targeting racialized, precarious, working class people. It builds upon and expands Canadian state practices of colonialism and imperialism. It is run by the Canada Border Services Agency and will join migrant detention centers currently in operation in Laval, Quebec, Toronto, and Vancouver.


The institution, still under construction at the time of the banner drop, has been clouded in secrecy, with little information about it available publicly. Border control agents are being recruited and trained for the center.


Getting access to the space in this way has not previously been possible.



Video of the action and banner hanging can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/user/RadicalCriminology

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