Unaccompanied Minor Refugees in Canada

“Mummy, can you hear me?
I’m lost.”

An Exploration of the Experiences of Unaccompanied Minor Refugees in Canada

JULY 2024

Hello, my name is Shreya Vohra and I am a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School (class of 2025).

I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto with a double major in International Relations and Peace, Conflict, and Justice studies and a minor in Psychology. My research interests focus on the intersections of terrorism, authoritarianism, and human rights, primarily pertaining to protracted conflicts in the global south. I have always possessed a deep-seated passion for dismantling prejudice, and I joined the UofMosaic Cohort to tangibly and effectively actualize that energy alongside young changemakers from across the country.

My research is an exploration of the experiences of unaccompanied minor refugees in Toronto and the supports available to them (or lack thereof). In a city so “woke” and a country so attuned to the difficult challenges faced by refugees all over the world, I find that the harsh realities of the journeys of unaccompanied minors are often ignored, or worse, unheard of. The Mosaic Institute is platform for championing change, fostering a healthier community, and reducing conflicts by shedding light on ambiguous societal issues. My research project attempts to check all three of these boxes.

AUTHOR

Shreya Vohra

UofMosaic Fellow

Cohort: 2021 - 2023

INTRODUCTION

Travelling to a new country is an exciting yet worrying experience. Stolen passport? Communication problems? Getting lost? While terrible, these stressors seem inconsequential in comparison to the dangers faced by the millions of refugees all over the world – and even more so by refugee children. Sometimes, children refugees (those under 18 years of age) do not migrate to a new country with a parent or guardian and do not have a custodian adult present at the time they claim asylum.1 They are called unaccompanied minors (UMs), or minors without the presence of a guardian. Many UMs experience unprecedented levels of stress and trauma as they flee their homes and make their way to a new country.2 This can arise from situations of conflict, persecution, and life endangerment, and can manifest in the form of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorder, lapses in memory, and other forms of mental disorders and comorbidities3,4.

While Canada is hailed as one of the most generous countries in our willingness to welcome refugees, do we have the necessary supports for the unaccompanied children that find their way to this promising land?

Focusing on Toronto, this essay will study the settlement supports available to unaccompanied minor refugees. I will also feature insights shared kindly by volunteers and staff members at Matthew House, a refugee home in Toronto, who are dedicated to supporting refugees and minors. The participants include Anne Woolgner, the founder of Matthew House, Jacky Tuinstra, the Executive Director, Gisela, Operations Manager, and Elizabeth, volunteer house parent and registered Designated Representative (DR).

The number of refugee minors who came to Canada unaccompanied by any guardian or adult increased from 287 in 2016 to 492 in 20175 and with the recent crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine6, these numbers are projected to rise even further and faster. I seek to examine the various kinds of governmental and non-governmental settlement supports available to minors and their consequent impacts. Three key parameters will be explored: how UMs come to Canada, the governmental supports available to them, and gaps the non-governmental sector can fill.

HOW DO UNACCOMPANIED MINOR REFUGEES
COME TO CANADA?

First and foremost, how does a child end up at a country’s border without a parent/guardian? An individual becomes a UM due to various situations. These pertain to their proximity to their guardian, their legal status at the time of arrival, and their access to resources. Some minors arrive at the border with a relative/contact person’s address in hand sent by their parent/guardian, while others do not. Some are brought in by traffickers who are either arrested at the airport or they abandon the child when they get an opportunity to do so.7 Yet others come with their guardian/parent but upon arrival, the guardian is incapacitated due to accident, injury or trauma and the child is left without support. Sometimes, the parent is forced/chooses to go back, and the youth stays to pursue their refugee claim. Each situation differs in the manner and stage at which the child is identified as a UM refugee and this in turn influences the legal and settlement supports they can access. Minors are allowed to make their own refugee claims and each year around 3,000 unaccompanied children arrive in Canada seeking refugee status.8

WHAT GOVERNMENTAL SUPPORTS ARE AVAILABLE?

In general, the government often sends minors under aged 16 to foster care. For those fleeing abusive homes and/or threatening conditions in their home country, it can take years to feel comfortable with their foster parents. Those aged 16 and 17 can sign a Voluntary Youth Services Agreement and have the Children’s Aid Society help them in finding shelter, but these resources are no longer accessible when they turn 18 years old.9 There is no central Canadian settlement service or national policy program that caters specifically to UMs.10 Such a system, in order to be effective and impactful, must employ a variety of legal aid staff, counselling staff, and other settlement support staff that cater to the individual status and experiences of a child.

There is also a lack of coordination between the various departments of the government that are responsible for the security and re-settlement of UMs.11 These departments include the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRBC), the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) along with the federal, provincial, and regional levels of government. As result of poor coordination between these departments, as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), proper support cannot be provided to these children and points to an ineffective functioning of the re-settlement system in general. The Children’s Aid Society12 offers some semblance of being the first point of contact for reliable supports pertaining to Designated Representatives (DR), mental health issues, gaps in basic needs (such as shelter, security, or food), and access to support workers. However, a DR can only assist a child with legal counsel and hearings; provincial child welfare systems (often overburdened and broken) are responsible for regular care and protection of the child.13 This is where the NGOs come in.

WHAT ROLES DO NGOs PLAY?

In the absence of a central government agency dedicated to UMs, non-for-profit NGOs such as Matthew House provide minors with legal and settlement supports. For example, Matthew House provides unaccompanied children with a safe home, mentorship, community, access to summer camps, schools, stability, legal aid, and orientation to life in Canada. Their system of temporary homes and subsequent transition homes receive about 5-12 UM youth per year who can stay with them for as little as a few weeks or as long as a year or more until they are ready to move on and can access the right supports. Sometimes, UMs cannot access these supports by themselves (including those offered by CAS) and therefore, organizations like Matthew House play a central role in establishing those connections. Furthermore, for those minors who might be appearing for a refugee hearing, the Refugee Hearing Program (RHP)14 is a joint collaboration between Matthew House in Toronto and Micah House in Hamilton that offers mock hearing sessions to help alleviate anxiety and offer preparatory assistance. Youths who were once a resident at Matthew House have gone on to complete their education in areas as wide as astrophysics, nursing, nuclear engineering etc. and have positively contributed to Canadian life. Little efforts for normalcy and supports like these can strengthen a child and offer them hope, especially in times of crisis.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Cooperation across government branches: First of all, all departments of the government need to work in tandem with one another, be it the legislative, the judiciary, or the executive. Without a concerted effort by the government, it is nearly impossible to fill up the cracks through which UM refugees fall prey to homelessness, human trafficking, and substance abuse. Despite the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)15, Canada lacks a national-level policy on the protection of unaccompanied minors.

2. Mental health supports: There must be proper mental health supports for youth, so they have a chance at a safe life. As per a house parent at Matthew House, these resources must be accessible to ensure that their mental health is not not another barrier that they face every day. While mental health supports are available, long wait times without legal referrals can take years to navigate.

3. Tracking system: The system also requires a tracking system system for the unaccompanied minors to ensure they are on their path to a fulfilling and productive life and don’t fall through systemic cracks. As noted by a Matthew House staff member, the intention is to prevent the disappearanceof unaccompanied minors who usually have no one to look out after them.

4. Donate/Volunteer: As noted above, there are several NGOs and not-for-profits like Matthew House that that are tirelessly offering support and resources to UM refugees that find their way to Canada. One of the simplest and most impactful actions one can take is by supporting them. Helping hands can take many forms – all you need is the resolve to make sure yours is one of them.

CONCLUSION

I was 10 years old when I went to the beach with my mother and younger brother in a country where I didn’t speak the native language. I went to buy some lemonade but lost my way. Worried I was going to get myself kidnapped and with all self-defence training having abandoned by body, I approached a stranger, told them I had lost my way, and asked them for their phone to call my mother. When she picked up the call, I said, with tears in my eyes, “Mummy can you hear me? I’m lost.” Several times while writing this paper, I recounted that horrible and scary experience. I cannot imagine the horrors that unaccompanied child refugees face as they navigate their way to a new land and new life without being able to hug their family and call out to them for help. The challenges faced by these youth are more severe than most individuals recognize, and most governments acknowledge. The need for reform is genuine, but the lack of political will has prevailed for far too long. It is of paramount importance to ensure a more reliable, central, and concerned government-led system of addressing the wide variety of issues faced by unaccompanied minors and improving their ability to access justice. In the absence of such a system, they will continue to fall prey to dangers such as homelessness, drug abuse, societal violence, and crime. The resource expenditure to prevent this outcome are high, but the alternative costs might be even higher.

FOOTNOTES

1. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Convention on the Rights of the Child General Comment No. 6 (2005): Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children outside of their Country of Origin, UNHCR: 2005, 6.

2. “I came to Canada as a refugee. What mental health services can I access?”, Settlement.Org, October 15, 2021. Accessed January 31, 2022. https://settlement.org/ontario/health/refugee-health/refugee-health-services/i-came-to-canada-as-a-refugee-what-mental-health-services-can-i-get/

3. A comorbidity refers to the co-existence of two or more medical conditions in a patient.

4. Bamford J, Fletcher M, and Leavey G, “Mental Health Outcomes of Unaccompanied Refugee Minors: a Rapid Review of Recent Research”, Current Psychiatry Reports, 2021 Jul 1; 23(8):46.

5.This remains the most recent available statistic as of May 2022. Arghavan Gerami, “Growing number of unaccompanied minors entering Canada”, Germani Law PC, January 14, 2019. Accessed January 31, 2022. https://geramilaw.com/blog/unaccompanied-minors-entering-canada.html

6. Alistair Steele, “Growing wave of unaccompanied minors among Ukrainians fleeing to Canada”, CBC News, November 02, 2022. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/unaccompanied-minors-ukraine-to-canada-1.6630566

7. Caryn Lieberman, “Ukraine crisis creates new trafficking, exploitation risks for women and children”, Global News, June 03, 2022. https://globalnews.ca/news/8891592/ukraine-crisis-creates-new-trafficking-risks/

8. Geraldine Sadoway, “Protection measures for unaccompanied child migrants in Canada” in Mary Crock and Lenni B. Benson, eds, Protecting Migrant Children. (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018).

9. “Can I get help from CAS?”, Steps to Justice. Accessed March 10, 2022. https://stepstojustice.ca/steps/family-law/learn-about-voluntary-services-agreements/

10. UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), Concluding Observations: Canada, 61st Sess., UN Doc. CRC/C/CAN/CO/3-4 (5 October 2012) at para. 74.

11. Inland Protection Working Group, “Developing a National Framework for Unaccompanied Minors in Canada,” Canadian Council of Refugees, June 2019. https://ccrweb.ca/en/res/developing-national-framework-unaccompanied-minors-canada

12. Children’s Aid Society Toronto. https://www.torontocas.ca. Accessed 12 August 2022.

13. Geraldine Sadoway, “Protection measures for unaccompanied child migrants in Canada” in Mary Crock and Lenni B. Benson, eds, Protecting Migrant Children (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 299.

14. Refugee Hearing Program at Matthew House. https://www.matthewhouserhp.com. Accessed 12 August 2022.

15. UNHCR, Convention on the Rights of the Child, 7.

Mosaic Institute has wound down operations effective August 9, 2024. Read more.

“Mummy, can you hear me? I’m lost.”