Canada regularly detains hundreds of children who have run afoul of the country’s immigration laws – including some who are held in correctional facilities and even in solitary confinement, according to a new report calling for sweeping reforms to the practice.



Between 2010 and 2014, an average of 242 children were detained across Canada over immigration violations, according to the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto. Their report, released on Thursday, sheds light on these detentions, which range in length from days to several months, and calls for urgent reform to a Canadian practice that has attracted consistent criticism from the United Nations.

“What’s happening with children in detention really runs counter to the narrative of Canada as a global human rights promoter,” said Samer Muscati, the report’s editor. “Canada has signed international agreements, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which clearly states that any detention has to be done as a last resort and for the least amount of time possible.”

The practice of regularly detaining children is among the many issues that plague Canada’s immigration detention system. Across the country, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has the power to detain non-citizens deemed to be a flight risk, who pose a threat to public safety or whose identities cannot be confirmed.

A lack of transparency and oversight mars the system, resulting in what critics have described as a “legal black hole”. Since 2000, at least 15 people have died in the custody of the CBSA, including five who are thought to have died from natural causes and three by suicide. Six deaths remain attributed to unknown causes.

Thursday’s report focuses on the children – ranging from newborns to teenagers – ensnared in the same system. Some are formally detained. Others are Canadian citizens who are forced to choose between separating from parents who have been detained by immigration authorities or living in detention with their parents as de facto detainees. Those who stay with their parents still face family separation, in that they are held with their mother and have limited visits during the day with their father.

The figures in the report probably underestimate the scale of the issue, said Muscati, as the data mostly reflects children who are formally detained. “We still don’t have an accurate number or idea of how many children are informally detained.”

Those detained hail from around the world with children from sub-Saharan Africa making up the largest group, at 23% of the children detained. The average length of detention is 10 days for children who are formally detained. For those who are held informally with their parents, the average length of the detention stretches to nearly 30 days. “Because under the law they’re invisible, their interests aren’t identified and represented,” said Muscati. “So they actually languish in these facilities for longer periods of time than formally detained children.”

Across the country, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has the power to detain non-citizens deemed to be a flight risk. Photograph: Reuters

Most children are held in medium-security immigration holding centres. But a small number have wound up in correctional facilities or police stations across the country.

The report also flagged what Muscati called “a whole other, really horrible scenario”, referring to findings on the use of solitary confinement for two, unaccompanied 16-year-old boys. One of them – a Syrian boy who had attempted to claim refugee status after entering Canada from the US – was left in isolation for three weeks. Loath to put the young males in the women’s section and worried that they may be at risk in the men’s section, authorities chose to place them in solitary confinement.

Even just a few days in detention can cause serious and long-lasting psychological harm to children. Studies have shown children who are detained experience increased symptoms of post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression, and are more likely to contemplate suicide. These symptoms often persist long after the children are released.

As less than 2% of those detained are considered a threat to public safety, the report highlights alternatives, such as those used in Sweden and Hong Kong, which allow children to reside with their families in the community through the use of reporting obligations, financial deposits and guarantees, or electronic monitoring.

Responding to the report, the CBSA said it was aware of the issue and said “tangible steps” are in the works to address the situation. The agency said it has been working to “reset the immigration detention program” to increase the use of alternatives and eliminate the detention of minors, except in the most limited and exceptional circumstances.

The agency falls under the portfolio of Canada’s public safety ministry. In a statement to the Guardian, the office of Ralph Goodale, Canada’s public safety minister, noted that the minister has been clear about wanting to try to avoid housing children in detention facilities, “as much as humanly possible.”

The agency plans to expand alternatives to detention and will begin publishing statistics on immigration detention in the near future. “As well, additional mental health training for staff at Immigration Holding Centres has already begun.”



Their efforts were noted by those behind the report, who said that recent months have seen a decline in the number of children taken into custody.

“After years of silence and inaction, the Canadian government and CBSA are taking serious steps that will hopefully bring us closer to ending child detention and family separation,” said Hanna Gros, one of the report’s co-authors. “But Ottawa needs to move quickly and deliberately to end the needless suffering of children and their parents.”