Children

1. The Province of BC has in place an appropriate model for the protection, care and guardianship of all separated children;
2. The current BC government is now considering reduction of these services and lowering the age limit for such services;

It has been recognized that the situation of separated refugee children in some provinces (notably Ontario where the largest number of such children arrive) is particularly critical due to the province’s general failure to provide appropriate child welfare services to separated refugee children, and due to the province’s breach of its international obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child in defining children to include only those under 16;

The UNHCR has recently produced a report on the situation of separated refugee children in Canada and has made a series of recommendations to the IRB and to the federal and provincial governments to address the protection needs of these children;

1. The increasing number of separated refugee children in Canada has drawn attention to the protection gaps existing in Canada, in particular the inconsistent practices regarding care and guardianship of separated refugee children in different provinces;
2. Canada has obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child;

1. Separated children are by definition without the care and protection of their parents or other primary caregivers, often face many dangers during their flight and arrive in Canada disoriented and frightened;
2. Front-end security interviews require separated children to respond to often lengthy and detailed questions including those related to their refugee claim;
3. Separated children would be unlikely to know of the 1951 Refuge Convention reasons and their flight reasons are frequently multi-factorial and may include child-specific violations of human rights;
4. It is inappropriate that children under 18 be interviewed in the absence of a parent or guardian;

1. The Canadian government intends to sign a "None is Too Many" agreement with the USA;
2. Under IRPA the Canadian government has confirmed its intention of only detaining minors as a last resort;
3. In the USA, the immigration authorities detain on average 5,000 separated children every year;

1. The questions around the care and protection of separated children arriving in Canada are a growing concern;
2. The CCR contributed to the preparation of the ‘Best Practices' document developed by the Focal Point on Separated Children in the Americas, a project of the International Bureau on Children's Rights;
3. The Focal Point on Separated Children in the Americas has asked for endorsement by organizations;

1. International human rights instruments which Canada has signed require that children's best interests be given priority consideration;
2. A number of recent decisions by H and C and PRRA officers seem to indicate that full consideration of the best interests of the child is not being applied;
3. There are no written guidelines to follow for CIC officers when assessing the best interests of the child, and the new IP5 manual does not deal satisfactorily with this issue:

1. The CCR passed a resolution to endorse the "Best Practice" Statement developed by the Focal Point on Separated Children (Res. 19, Nov. 2002);
2. There has yet to be a national policy developed on separated children;
3. There is no consistent definition of the term "separated children";
4. Practices differ widely across the country;

1. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has noted with concern in its recent report on Canada that children are being excluded from schools in Canada because of their lack of immigration status;
2. It is the policy of the CCR that all minor children residing in Canada have the right to attend school regardless of their immigration status;
3. Education of children is a matter of the exclusive jurisdiction of the provincial governments under the Canadian constitution;
4. The exception set out in section 30(2) of IRPA has the effect, due to its ambiguity, of excluding from school many children who are not visitors;