A Question of Commitment: Children’s Rights in Canada

14. On the Rights of Refugee Children and Child Asylum Seekers

Sonja Grover, Faculty of Education, Lakehead University Introduction In the previous chapter, the rights violations of homeless and streetinvolved children were discussed. This chapter focuses on a second group of especially vulnerable children: refugees and asylum seekers. These are children who have been put at continuing high risk in their home countries and who are attempting to escape those circumstances by seeking asylum in Canada. The chapter considers the extent to which Canada has met its obligations to these refugee children under the CRC and how to remedy any shortfalls. According to Human Rights Watch, refugee children are among the most vulnerable children in the world. Also considered are special populations of victimized children—in particular, those who arrive at a Canadian border point as a result of human trafficking. The latter group of children is in especially dire need of a voice in the international forum and of the protections afforded by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). I will examine the extent to which Canada affords these highly vulnerable child groups their rights under the CRC. Children seeking asylum have suffered the consequences of war or various forms of persecution in their countries of origin. Many of these children continue to suffer human rights abuses in the countries of asylum that have become their temporary or permanent sanctuary. Of the approximately 17 million people worldwide who are seeking asylum as refugees outside their home country, or who are internally displaced, about half are 14 On the Rights of Refugee Children and Child Asylum Seekers Sonja Grover 343 children.1 Even though more than half the world’s refuges are children, their rights and special protection needs as children are often neglected.2 The number of unaccompanied children seeking refugee status has increased steadily in recent years. Growing numbers have come to Canada. It is estimated that by 2002 more than 1,800 unaccompanied minors age seventeen and under had entered Canada, with more than half coming to Ontario.3 This increase has been due to a number of international factors , including expanded armed conflict, economic dislocation, epidemics, and extreme poverty. Several articles in the CRC address the issue of state and international obligations to protect child refugees. Article 22 in particular requires states to ensure that children seeking refugee status “receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance.” The same article stipulates that these protections are to apply whether the child seeking asylum is accompanied by parents or others or is unaccompanied. However, article 22 presumes that the determination of who is a child refugee under domestic and international law reflects a just and non-discriminatory process that is respectful of the child’s human rights and humanitarian basic needs. This is not always the case in Canada—or in other states. Nor is it always the case that unaccompanied asylum-seeking children receive the same consideration as do accompanied children. Article 22 of the CRC also requires that states make every effort to trace the parents or other family members of the asylum-seeking or refugee child in order to reunify the child with his or her family wherever this is feasible and in the child’s best interests. Typically, the child refugee is attempting to escape from a situation in his or her home country such as civil war or persecution based on gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, social status, religion, or certain other personal characteristics. Not all countries recognize all of the same grounds for refugee claims. For instance, Canada is among a handful of countries (along with France, the Netherlands, and the United States) that recognizes gender persecution as a basis for a refugee claim.4 The value of nondiscrimination is articulated in article 2 of the CRC. Extreme poverty may be the reason for seeking escape to Canada and often is correlated with high risk to the child’s good development or even life. Extreme poverty, however, is not regarded as a basis for a refugee claim under Canadian law—or indeed under international humanitarian law. In contrast , the CRC under article 27 guarantees children a standard of living adequate for their overall good development. 344 Sonja Grover Overview of Some Key Aspects of the Canadian Refugee System Affecting Children Canadian refugee law has been revised since Canada ratified the CRC in 1991. These revisions, including the ones found in Canada’s new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (2002...