Atlantic Wall

old photograph Scheveningen, The Hague
I remember the blasting. I was maybe four or five years old.

Canada Has a Dismal Record of Locking Up Migrants
Children behind bars, indefinite detention and no oversight make us a global outlier.
Paula Ethans, TheTyee.ca

Canada is one of the few countries in the world that still uses mandatory detention for some migrants, which allows detention for up to 12 months with no judicial review.

Between 2018-2019, Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) detained 9,861 migrants. On average, 12 per cent were held for more than 99 days.

Reasons for being detained vary, but most often these people have done nothing wrong and are not a danger to society.

Under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, permanent residents and foreign nationals may be detained if CBSA officers believe they are unable to establish their identities; are unlikely to appear at immigration proceedings; or are deemed a danger to the public.

Very few migrants are detained because they threaten public safety. In fact, Project Ploughshares notes that in 2017-18, 94 per cent of migrants were detained for administrative reasons, not security or safety concerns.

Detaining people indefinitely

Unlike the criminal legal system, where individuals know the length of their sentence, there are no time limits on Canadian immigration detention. Canada remains one of the only Western nations without time limits on migrant detention.

Locking up children

In Canada, it’s legal to detain children. Section 60 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act says the best interests of the child must always be considered and children are only to be detained as a last resort. But Bill C-31 explicitly provides for mandatory detention for children over 16 years old who are designated an irregular arrival, like the Syrian teenager who was kept in segregation for three weeks in an immigration facility.

Even when there are no grounds to detain a child, they can be “housed” in a detention facility to avoid being separated from their families. These children become subject to the same conditions of detention as individuals who fall under formal detention orders. Human rights groups repeatedly condemn Canada for this, arguing these detention centres are inadequate and inappropriate for children.

Children who are detained to remain with their parents become “legally invisible,” since they are not considered legally detained and thus are not entitled to the standard review hearings. Often, the only way to address their concerns is through their parents’ reviews.