Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank members of the committee for assisting me in being able to ask my questions. I realize I came a little late to today's committee.
I look to Ms. Rico to provide some responses to concerns I've had with regard to the whole detention process.
Detention is a fairly costly way of keeping someone who might not necessarily need to be kept in detention. One of the things we as a committee want to look at, I believe, is whether there is a better way to accommodate individuals in Canada who might not necessarily have to be held in detention centres?
Ms. Rico, my apologies if you've already provided specific comments on this particular issue. Is there something very specific that you would recommend to the committee as an alternative for some of those refugees?
The other issue I would appreciate if you could comment on, because I think it often gets overlooked, is that there's usually some sort of social cost to many individuals who are held in detention centres for any period of time. Other related issues come because quite often these refugees come from fairly ugly environments, and then they're held in a detention centre. I think some sort of mental or social development issues might come out of that.
I wonder if you could comment on those two points.