Pressure is mounting on federal officials to find a solution to the indefinite detention of a failed refugee claimant who has spent more than four years in maximum-security jail without charge.

Government critics from the Conservatives and New Democrats say Ebrahim Toure, recently profiled as part of a Star investigation into Canada’s immigration detention system, should at least be moved to the less-restrictive Immigration Holding Centre while Canada’s border service continues to try to deport him.

“I think we have to use common sense here,” said Tony Clement, the Conservative Public Safety critic. “Maximum security is also very costly (and) in the immediate sense, he’s not a danger to the public. So I don’t see why that decision was made.”

Toure, a failed refugee claimant from West Africa, has been incarcerated at Central East Correctional Centre — a maximum-security jail in Lindsay, Ont. — since February 2013. He wears an orange jumpsuit, is regularly strip-searched and is treated the same as prisoners serving criminal sentences or awaiting trial.

The 45-year-old, who is detained solely on the grounds that he is a flight risk, not a danger to the public, says he was born in Gambia and raised primarily in Guinea and he would like to be sent back to either country, but neither will take him because he can’t prove his citizenship.

Canada operates three medium-security facilities dedicated to immigration detention, including one in Toronto that is nowhere near full. But the federal government outsources the detention of what it calls “high risk” detainees to provincial jails.

Canada Border Services Agency, which is still “firmly committed” to deporting Toure, told the Star he is considered a “high risk” detainee because of “criminality” in the U.S., which the Star found consists of a 12-year-old conviction for selling pirated DVDs in Atlanta, Ga., and a $1,000 fine for “reckless conduct.” Neither offence led to any jail time.

Toure’s story was told as part of a recent Star investigation into immigration detention, which found that while Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has detained fewer people than the Conservatives did under Stephen Harper, there are still dozens of unwanted immigrants languishing indefinitely in criminal jails.

Matthew Dubé, the NDP’s Public Safety critic, agreed that Toure should be moved to the Immigration Holding Centre in Etobicoke.

“I certainly accept the argument that he would be a flight risk, so I think it would be appropriate to detain someone like that,” Dubé said. “But in light of the fact that there are no violent crimes committed, and no crimes committed in Canada, I think that it’s absolutely appropriate to look towards (moving him to) an immigration detention centre as opposed to jail.”

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale declined the Star’s interview requests and his spokesperson said he would not address Toure or any individual cases, citing unspecified “privacy issues.”

Goodale’s office said in a written statement that Canada “must have a much improved immigration detention system” that limits the use of detention to only the most serious cases and minimizes the use of provincial jails.

But Goodale offered no substantial policy changes beyond repeating last summer’s announcement of a $138-million expansion of detention facilities in Vancouver and Laval, Que., which also includes spending to increase alternatives to detention, “enhance” health services and improve conditions at the immigration detention centres.

Goodale’s statement mentions the series of consultations on immigration detention he hosted last fall, saying he “heard the concerns” of humanitarian organizations and legal groups. “The government is committed to addressing the weaknesses that exist and to do better.”

But Goodale said Canada has no plans to heed the advice of the UN’s Human Rights Committee by setting a “reasonable” time limit on immigration detention, as many other countries already have in place.

“Some have focused on exceptional cases of prolonged detentions,” Goodale’s statement reads. “These examples are not unique in the developed world. The United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia do not have prescribed maximum lengths for immigration detention. And while the United States does have a limit, it is subject to several exceptions.”

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Other countries in the developed world, such as France, Spain, Germany and most of the European Union, as well as less-developed countries such as South Africa and Mexico, do have maximum lengths of immigration detention.

Dubé, the NDP’s public safety critic, said Canada should follow suit.

“Due process is part of how we operate as a society,” he said. “We wouldn’t accept a Canadian being detained indefinitely.”

While Clement believes Toure should be moved out of maximum-security jail, he doesn’t think Canada should make its immigration detention system more lenient.

“I’m not on the side of somehow saying to these individuals, ‘You get to go free into our society.’ I don’t think that would be fair to the legitimate asylum-seekers and legitimate immigrants who want to make their way in our society and have played by all the rules.”

Instead, Clement would like to see Canada put more pressure on foreign governments to take their citizens back.

On Thursday, Toure’s detention was extended another 30 days by the quasi-judicial Immigration and Refugee Board.

At the hearing — attended by five observers from the End Immigration Detention Network, a coalition of migrant-advocacy groups — the government’s representative, a kind of prosecutor, repeatedly said Toure is not co-operating with his removal.

“The ministry still believes a travel document can be obtained for Mr. Toure, despite his lack of co-operation,” he said.

Toure, meanwhile, continues to insist he has provided all the information he has.

“How can I help them with anything while I’m in prison?” he said, addressing the hearing via video link from Lindsay.

“I just want to go back to Africa. They want me to help them get a travel document, but I’m sitting in a super-max prison. How can I help them?”

Citing Toure’s use of a fraudulent passport to enter Canada, his false identities and criminal record in the U.S. and the government’s position that he has been unco-operative, Karen Greenwood, the presiding Immigration and Refugee Board member, said Toure is “completely lacking in credibility and reliability” and has only himself to blame for his lengthy detention.