immigrant who has been convicted 23 times since arriving in Canada two decades ago. Iran refuses to take him—and five others that Canada wants to deport.
Canada is home to dozens of foreign criminals who may never be deported because their own countries won’t take them back, officials told the QMI news agency of Quebec.
One Iranian held in a Canadian jail has racked up 23 convictions since 1992. Canada has been trying to deport him since 2004, but the Islamic Republic won’t take him.
The man, Mehdi Karimi-Arshad, 50, was granted refugee status after coming to Canada in 1989. Since arriving, he has been convicted of bank robbery and other crimes, the report said.
“There have been ongoing and continuing problems arranging for Karimi-Arshad’s removal to Iran,” Judge Russel Zinn said in a deciding not to release the suspect from jail. “It appears the Iranian authorities are not fully cooperating with attempts to return the respondent to his country of birth.”
Police said criminals with lengthy arrest records who should be deported include 10 Cubans, six Iranians and several others from Iraq, Vietnam and Liberia.