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Canada Keeps Locking Up Migrant Teenagers Who Haven't Committed Any Crimes

Dozens of young migrants were housed in Canadian jails, sometimes for more than a month at a time, while they faced deportation.

news.vice.com

Every year, hundreds of migrants and failed refugee claimants in Canada are left to languish in jails as opposed to the holding centers designed to house migrants — even though they haven’t committed any crime. And new figures obtained by VICE News show that dozens of teens have also been in the same situation.

According to documents obtained by VICE News under an access to information request, 28 migrant teens detained by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) were held in Canadian jails from 2010 to 2015. In addition, a 16-year-old detained for a week at the Toronto youth jail in 2013 appears to hold both Canadian and American citizenship.

One 17-year-old Korean male who was kept at the juvenile detention facility in Brampton, Ontario for 45 days in 2011 because CBSA determined he wouldn’t appear for his next immigration proceeding. That same year, a 15-year-old Eritrean male was held at another youth jail in northern Ontario for 42 days for the same reason.

Like adult migrants held in jail, these migrant teens, aged 14 to 17, rub shoulders with criminal offenders, sometimes for more than a month even though they haven’t been charged with any crime.