Children in immigration detention centers
Canada is a beautiful and diverse country which is mainly made up of immigrants from all around the world. Many looking for a better life for themselves and their children immigrate to Canada, but sadly not all immigrate to the country legally. Many people form developing countries do immigrate to Canada illegally. If the immigrants are caught by the government, they can be deported right away or they can be kept in immigration detention centers until further decisions by the authorities are made.
Not all illegal immigrants come to Canada alone, but instead sometimes they do bring their families and children along. When the government does get to know of any illegal immigrants they are usually kept in immigration detention centers. But, what happens to the children of illegal immigrants? Well sadly, the children are also, kept in detention centers and they are separated from their parents. This is a violation of children rights. Many children do feel sad and they terribly miss their families. Though the children are given time to play and eat, many children choose not do so because of their separation from their parents. Due to this the children mental health is affected.
Many children rights defenders have spoken out, and they have asked the government to find alternative ways to keeping children in detention centers. The government is now trying to improve the treatment of children in detention centers and we hope that less and less children are kept in them. The CBSA (Canadian border services) and the federal government is trying to work with non-government organization to design programs which will help improve the children’s mental health.
This is a huge problem in some countries so we hope that the countries are doing their best to protect children. There has been no news recently about the treatment of children in detention centers, but we hope that the government has tried their best to improve the lives of children kept in detention centers.
Written by: Akanksha Sharma CORIA CanadaAll information: Invisible children: Canadian children in immigration detention. By University of Toronto international Human Rights Program. https://ihrp.law.utoronto.ca/page/working-group-and-clinic-reports/invisible-citizens