Give All Mothers The #WelcomeToCanada They Deserve

“I begged the officers to let me be with my children but they just refused. It will take a long time to take care of my children’s mental health. Being separated from us hurt them very much.… It’s very hard to ease their pain. They haven’t learned yet how to protect themselves because they are very young.… They just keep asking me everyday to promise that I won’t disappear and I keep telling them, “Don’t worry, I’ll be here.” 

Refugee claimant who was separated from her young children when she was in immigration detention (2021)  

Right now in British Columbia, too many mothers will not be able to hug their children on Mother’s Day because they are unjustly detained for immigration reasons.  People are incarcerated in immigration detention for purely administrative and non-criminal matters - such as questions about their identity documentation or because a border officer claims they may not appear for a legal proceeding.  And yet many of them are jailed in provincial jails.

When mothers are detained, they can be separated from their children.   At a time when their children most need their mothers' care and protection- during the most traumatic and destabilizing moments of their lives - they see them handcuffed and taken away.  No child should ever experience this.  And every child deserves to hug their mother on Mother’s Day.

Children have a right to a “family environment”

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes that family is a fundamental pillar of a child’s support system and that countries must work to preserve family unity.  Article 9 of the Convention states that signatories “shall ensure that a child shall not be separated from his or her parents against their will, except when competent authorities determine that such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child.” 

Incarcerating mothers and separating them from their children for indefinite periods of time is never in a child's best interests.  This harmful practice is also unnecessary.  There are safe, non-custodial, community and human-rights compliant alternatives. 

Family separation harms mothers and their daughters

Family separation disproportionately harms mothers and young girls.  Girls separated from their families are at higher risk of experiencing gender-based violence.  Immigrant girls are also twice as likely to live in poverty (31%) as compared to Canadian-born children (15.9%), partly due to family separation from one or more parents.  Children who are separated from their parents as a result of immigration detention are also at risk of being apprehended by child welfare authorities, and this is another factor that places them at much higher risk for violence, poverty and poorer education and employment outcomes.  

For more information about Immigration Detention  - see the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International Campaign #WelcomeToCanada here.