Detention and Best Interest of the Child

Canadian Council for Refugees

06/2009

The article looks at the Immigration Detention practices of Canada, especially of children under the (2001) Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. It looks into why children are detained, and finds that despite the promise of the Act to protect children from unnecessary detention, children are still being detained with little meaningful consideration of their best interests. The article makes recommendations to make children legally visible and to ensure that detention is a actually a measure of last resort.