Many children wait years to be reunited with one or both parents in Canada, while the government processes the immigration application.
The long wait is particularly unacceptable for children who are separated from both parents. In some cases, both parents have been forced to flee as refugees, leaving their children temporarily with a grandparent, another family member or even a neighbour. In other cases, one parent has died or is otherwise not available to care for the child, and the parent in Canada struggles to look after their child at a distance.
The CCR is calling on the Canadian government to establish a standard of 6 months to reunite separated children with a parent in Canada.
Please support the CCR’s call by contacting your Member of Parliament and publicizing the advocacy call:
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Pinku* is a teenage boy who last saw his father in 2017, and his mother in early 2018. When his parents were forced, one after the other, to flee their home in India, Pinku was left in the care of elderly relatives. His older brother, Sanju, is studying in another city. Pinku’s parents have been accepted as Convention refugees in Canada. They both suffered violent attacks after Pinku’s father refused attempts to the local ruling political party to extort political contributions. Read Pinku's story here. |
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11-year-old Benjamin and his sisters Beth [13] and Ally [17] are waiting in Nigeria to be reunited with their parents in Canada. At the time of escaping Nigeria, their parents could not obtain visas for the children so they had to leave them with a friend in a rural location. The children's mother states, “Nowhere in the whole world should parents and children be separated for such a long time. The children I carried are not with me. What I feel inside me every day, the emotional pain, prevents me from being the person I can be. My children are at risk and I live in fear and desperation.” Read Benjamin, Beth and Ally's story here. |
These poignant testimonies illustrate how very real and urgent the matter of family reunification is. We invite you to share some testimonies or visuals on social media to spread the word:
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