Federal agents have lost track of more than 28,000 foreign fugitives in Canada including several hundred with criminal records, documents show. The latest figures follow an admission by the Canada Border Services Agency that it found it difficult to keep track of people ordered deported.

“The number of active warrants issued to failed refugee claimants currently stands at 28,145 active warrants,” the Agency wrote in an Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons. “An Agency officer may issue a warrant for the arrest and detention of a foreign national if the officer has reasonable grounds to believe the individual is inadmissible under the Immigration And Refugee Protection Act and either poses a danger to the public or is unlikely to appear for an immigration process such as a removal from Canada.”