Protecting Canada S Immigration System Act: Citizenship And Immigration

Canada Dept: The detention provisions in Bill C-31, the Protecting Canada s Immigration System Act, would allow the citizenship and immigration minister to designate groups of people arriving in Canada who would automatically be sent into detention for a year if the minister either has reasonable grounds to suspect they were smuggled or thinks examination of the group s members cannot be conducted in a timely manner. The limited exceptions to year-long detention are unlikely to result in practical relief, according to The Star. The Convention on the Rights of the Child protects children from the devastating psychological impact of long-term detention. A study published in the October 2011 Journal of the Canadian Pediatric Society documents effects of immigration detention on children s the mental health, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicidal thoughts, behavioural difficulties, developmental delay, and a host of other problems and parliament is currently debating legislation that would require one-year, mandatory detention for certain migrants arriving in Canada, including 16- and 17-year-old children. Ostensibly intended to prevent human smuggling, this bill in fact punishes victims of human smuggling, including those desperately fleeing persecution and violence. What would constitute a group is not defined and could technically include as few as two people travelling together. Children under age 16 in the group would either be detained with their parents or separated from them and sent to a child welfare agency. Under international law, 16 and 17 year olds are also children, yet Canada would run afoul of its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child by subjecting them to one-year detention. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.