Canadian Children Locked Up in Immigrant Detention Centers
Dozens of children who are Canadian citizens have been held in immigration detention centres in conditions that can cause physical and psychological harm, according to a new report.
The study, called "Invisible Citizens: Canadian Children in Immigration Detention," was produced by the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto's faculty of law and released today during a news conference on Parliament Hill.
It found the best interests of the children were not adequately accounted for at the time of the arrest and detention of the mothers, and that the fundamental rights of the children were violated.
The report calls on the government to find better alternatives, including community housing, and warns that Canada's international reputation is at stake
"If Canadian authorities do not move quickly to address the serious human rights violations of some of the most vulnerable members of our society, and entrench the initial progress of the past year into law and practice, Canada's government will further undermine its reputation as a human rights defender," the report reads.
Program director Samer Muscati welcomed the government's recent commitment to reform the detention regime, but called for fast action on the plan and for more public data to be released.
"These are good signs, but the federal government must move urgently to implement viable alternatives to detention and family separation," he said.
"In cases where unconditional release is inappropriate, families should be accommodated in community-based programs that involve, for example, reporting obligations, national deposits and guarantors."
In a foreword to the report, Audrey Macklin, chair in human rights law at the University of Toronto, said some of the minors detained were infants and toddlers, while others were attending school until they were "torn away from the life they had known and shunted into detention."
Their parents, usually mothers, had to choose between giving up their children to child protection authorities or bringing them into detention with them.
"When it comes to children, migrant detention isn't just for migrants," she wrote. "Children with Canadian citizenship are also locked up."
The program interviewed nine detained and formerly detained mothers of Canadian children from the Middle East, West Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. They described conditions in Toronto and Laval, Que., centres that hampered their ability to properly protect and care for their children.
"Without exception, the mothers expressed deep anguish about the detrimental consequences of the experience on their children's health," the report reads. "Their children had difficulty sleeping, lost their appetite for food and interest in play, and developed symptoms of depression and separation anxiety, as well as a variety of physical symptoms. Many of these symptoms persisted after release from detention."
Through access to information requests, the program found that for each year between 2011 and 2015, there was an average of at least 48 Canadian children staying at the Toronto Immigration Holding Centre for some period of time as "de facto detainees."
The report says this is an underestimate of the total number of Canadian children housed in immigration detention, as the authors were only able to extract data from the Toronto Immigration Holding Centre.
More recent figures suggest the number of Canadian children housed in detention has dropped significantly over the past year, but the report says the frequency of families being separated has not followed a similar trend.
"Children who are spared detention but are separated from their detained parents experience similarly grave consequences for their mental health," the report says.
The report says Canadian children living in detention are by and large an "invisible population," because minors are considered "guests" of the CBSA and not counted as a legal category. That means their interests are not taken into account in the decision-making around their parents.
The report also said the federal government has resisted gathering and disclosing data on the number of children in detention because they aren't legally counted as "detained," but noted recent steps to improve both conditions and transparency.
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan called the report "shocking" and said Canada is breaching international law and charter rights.
"This is a disgrace," she said during question period in the House. "Will this government finally amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and prohibit the detention of children?"
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said immigration detention is a measure of "absolute last resort" and that the government is investing in new ways to improve the system and to minimize its use.
"We want to avoid the housing of minors in detention and facilities as much as humanly possible," he said, noting the report said signs of improvement are already underway.
Last year, Goodale announced the government would spend $138 million to upgrade immigration detention centres across Canada, and said the objective is to make detention a last resort.
The government also promised to consult with stakeholders to find ways to minimize the number of minors in detention.
Immigration detention facilities in Vancouver and Laval, Que., are also set to be replaced. The government's other reform objectives include reducing the use of provincial jails for immigration detention, improving physical and mental health care to detainees, and increasing transparency.
Mother diagnosed with PTSD, depression during detention
One mother interviewed for the report, Abigail, was arrested while on her way to church with her baby, Daevon, in 2014. Abigail had fled Jamaica after she reportedly endured physical and sexual abuse from a former partner. The Refugee Board refused her claim for asylum.
She didn't return to Jamaica, because Daevon was born with severe health problems that required medical care not available in the country. Without treatment, her son, a Canadian citizen, could become permanently disabled.
While in detention, Daevon experienced frequent nosebleeds and his health was impacted from the poor quality of the food he received. The Canada Border Services Agency initially refused to let Abigail accompany her son to doctor's appointments, and pressured her to hand over the child to her former partner.
Abigail was diagnosed with depression and PTSD. The psychological assessment during her detention noted Abigail felt "like her life is not worth living and concern for her son's well-being is the only reason that she pushes herself to keep going." She was released after six months and granted permanent resident status, but still feels like she and her son were "robbed."
Summary of Articles
Canada is known to be a safe and welcoming country for immigrants. But little do we all know that these immigrants children are being locked away while their parents are detained and aren’t getting the proper nutrition and care they need and deserve since they are said to be ‘invisible to the law’ since they are ‘just visitors’ at the centre. These parents are given the option of losing their children to childs services or bringing them to the detention centre with them so most of them choose to have their children with them so they’re actually with a loved one and not strangers. The statistics of how many children are being kept there and how long they’re there for keeps rapidly increasing without them disclosing this information to the government or anywhere else since they're not technically there since they're just going along with their parents. A report they did on children that had been in detention centers had said “Their children had difficulty sleeping, lost their appetite for food and interest in play, and developed symptoms of depression and separation anxiety, as well as a variety of physical symptoms. Many of these symptoms persisted after release from detention.” This shows us how much of an effect being in this detention centre had on them and their health. These children were just taken from the life they had known and were shunned into these centers hardly knowing anyone there. This situation also caused great harm to the parents mental help, most of them ending up having depression, which also affects the children since their primary caretaker is acting different and not being their normal self which would reflect onto the children. The government has said that they will make the conditions for these children better and not have as many confined to that space but since they were already holding back the information of how many children were there, we don't know if they actually will do anything about it.
Works Cited
Harris, Kathleen. “Canadian Children 'Locked up' in Immigration Detention Centres, Report Says | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 24 Feb. 2017, www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-immigration-detention-children-1.3995461.
“Hundreds of Canadian Children Held in Immigration Detention, Report Shows.” The Globe and Mail, 24 Mar. 2017, www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/hundreds-of-canadian-children-held-in-immigration-detention-report-shows/article34117189/.
Rieger, Sarah. “Canada Commits 'Human Rights Violations' By Locking Up Children: Report.” HuffPost Canada, HuffPost Canada, 23 Feb. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/02/23/canada-immigration-detent_n_14974320.html.
Connection to human abuses
This connects to article 2 and 7 since the children are denied their legal rights since they’re said to just be invisible to the world and aren’t being treated equal to all the other children in the world.
This connects to article 5 since they’re being treated so poorly and not getting the proper things they should be to live healthily.
This also connects to article 13 since their parents aren’t allowed to live in Canada even though some of them were fleeing from bad situations.
This really connects to article 25 since all these people aren’t living at the standard they should be to keep them properly healthy.
A lot of the abuses of human rights was really just about how the children weren’t being treated properly and weren’t being seen as citizens of Canada where these things shouldn’t have been allowed to happen to them since it violates their rights.