Hello. My name is Jenny Jeanes, and I coordinate Action Réfugiés Montréal's detention program. Thank you for inviting me here today to speak about immigration detention.
Some of the comments I will make today will echo some of the evidence provided during the examination of Bill C-31, but are relevant to the current study.
Action Réfugiés Montréal was founded in 1994 by the Anglican Diocese of Montreal and the Presbyterian Church in Canada through the Presbytery of Montreal. Our mandate includes assisting refugee claimants who are detained in the CBSA Immigration Holding Centre in Laval, Quebec.
Since joining Action Réfugiés Montréal in 2005, I have visited the Canada Border Services Agency holding centre in Laval on a weekly basis, meeting with individual detainees. Each week we meet newly arrived refugee claimants who have for the most part been detained in order to verify their identity. We help them understand complex immigration procedures, especially the refugee claim process; assist them in finding legal counsel; provide phone cards to those who need to call their families and ask for identity documents to be sent; and identify the more vulnerable detainees in order to provide them extra support.
I understand committee members have visited the three holding centres. Having visited, you have been able to gain valuable information about detention conditions. However, a single visit does not provide complete information. I hope that our experience visiting the centre on a weekly basis, following the cases of detainees through the investigations process, and accompanying them to detention review hearings will provide a more complete picture.
This information is essential for your study. When making decisions about detention as a tool to enhance security, the government has a responsibility to ensure safeguards are in place to prevent further harm to people fleeing persecution. The consequences of the decision to detain must be considered.
The four key points I would like to speak to you about today are the following: the situation of children accompanying their parents in detention; the inadequate consideration of vulnerability in the decision to detain or maintain detention; the inability of the immigration division to fully review detention on the grounds of identity; and the impact of detention on refugee claimants. All of the cases I will mention today are of refugee claimants detained on identity grounds.
I believe the committee has been provided with statistics about the number of children detained in Canada each year. It is essential to keep in mind that many of the children who spend time in holding centres each year are not officially detained but accompany their detained parents; these children do not appear in the official statistics.
The Canadian Council for Refugees published a report highlighting such cases in 2009. In theory, these children may leave into someone else's care; however, most of the families—