U.S. President Donald Trump has rescinded a policy that separated migrant children from their parents and placed them in detention centres, but the outcry over the situation has prompted many Canadians to ask about their own country鈥檚 detention practices.
Hanna Gros, a senior fellow with the University of Toronto鈥檚 International Human Rights Program, helped author a
She says Canada does not separate migrant families en masse in detention. However, there are still cases of child detainment, which can cause depression, anxiety and selective mutism.
Gros spoke to CTV News Channel鈥檚 Merella Fernandez on Wednesday, and explained that although the numbers of migrant children in detention are declining, she鈥檚 believes it is 鈥渁lways a violation of their human rights.鈥�
Here鈥檚 a transcript:
What are our practices here in this country?
First of all, I think it鈥檚 important to highlight that while the U.S. is a natural comparison point, this is not like anything we see in Canada. We don鈥檛 detain children en masse and we don鈥檛 have family separation en masse.
But that doesn鈥檛 mean that there are no human rights violations being committed in the context of Canadian immigration detention.
Children end up in detention in one of two ways. They鈥檙e either under formal detention orders, in cases where they鈥檙e found to be either a danger to the public, a flight risk or (have) an unclear identity. Otherwise they can end up housed in detention in order to accompany their detained parents.
The international community has been clear on the fact that children should not be in detention. It is always a violation of their human rights.
The other side is separating them from their family, which could be detrimental as well?
Absolutely. And there is a right to family unity in international law as well. So we鈥檙e advocating for twinned principals of no child detention and no family separation.
That would mean, of course, that people crossing the border and bringing children would automatically be released and never be detained and that might give people a motive to bring children across the border?
I think that it鈥檚 clear that people don鈥檛 seek asylum for fun. People are seeking asylum and coming over our borders because they need to. They鈥檙e fleeing persecution. This is not a field trip. People need to leave where they鈥檙e living.
Do we know how long families are detained?
There鈥檚 actually been a great deal of improvement in the lengths of detention with respect to children. We鈥檝e seen reduced numbers both in the number of children detained and the lengths of time they鈥檙e detained recently.
Any idea how long that is?
It really depends on the case. On average, it could be a week. It could be two weeks. It depends on the case. It depends on the region as well.
I would say that one to two weeks is not ... a long time? What did it used to be?
The mental health evidence is clear that even brief periods of detention or family separation can have lasting and huge consequences for children鈥檚 health and well-being. We鈥檝e seen children deteriorate even after being detained for 48 hours.
