“Right now, we have more than ever”
They are usually 12 to 17 years old, but can be as young as 10. They come from a wide variety of countries: Afghanistan, Turkey, Angola, Venezuela, Mexico, Pakistan, Congo. Their number is such that 10 social workers now devote themselves solely to this clientele in the Regional Program for the Reception and Integration of Asylum Seekers (PRAIDA).
In 2018, PRAIDA created a team dedicated to unaccompanied children who use Roxham Road “in order to provide more targeted care and social services”, since these minors must be followed until they reach majority by social workers.
“We receive between one and six a week,” says a community worker, closely involved in managing the case of these children. She asked not to be named, as she is not authorized to speak to the media.
“It has been going on for a long time and it goes with the waves of migration, continues our speaker. Right now we have more than ever. »
In 2019, the number of unaccompanied minors already amounted to 112 files for the year. “We have returned to pre-pandemic levels for the number of unaccompanied minors,” confirms Lucie Tremblay, deputy CEO of the CIUSSS du Centre-Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal and head of the PRAIDA program.
It was the Quebec Ministry of Social Services that provided us with these figures on the number of unaccompanied minors. After two weeks of waiting, Immigration Canada has indicated that it “is unable” to provide us with this basic data on young people arriving alone on Roxham Road.
When they arrive at the border, single minors are immediately taken care of by PRAIDA. A social worker supervises them, accompanies them in all the procedures for the asylum application. Immediately, we find them a family to house them and a school to welcome them.
Currently, 85 of them are housed in “support families”, often recommended by parents in the country of origin, according to figures provided by the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services. “There is a mandatory communication with the family to verify that the young person is indeed going to a parent,” explains the worker. Immigration Canada then takes care of verifying the identity of the members of these mutual aid families. And then, an assessment of the family environment is carried out by two social workers from PRAIDA, who devote themselves solely to this type of task.
But in some cases, the children have nowhere to live. The foster family services of the Department of Youth Protection (DPJ) are then used.
Some 40 unaccompanied minors are currently accommodated in resources managed by social services, whether they are foster families or group homes. Nine of them are in supervised apartments.
“He just wanted to bring his family”
Jacques* and his spouse are one of these host families who have taken in young migrants who arrived alone via Roxham Road. Over the past few months, they have welcomed seven under their roof. And what they saw “troubled” them, Jacques confided to us during an interview.
The first young person received, a 17-year-old from the Middle East, had been “sent” by his extended family, who had clubbed together to pay for the $10,000 trip. The equivalent, said the young, of 12 years of salary.
After flying to Mexico, the youth crossed the Rio Grande on foot and was incarcerated in Texas. Once he was released, a bus dropped him off in Plattsburgh, then a taxi, on Roxham Road. From the beginning, his destination was clear: Canada, via the Roxham Road, which was known even in his small village in the Middle East.
“He had zero American Dream. He just wanted to bring his family. He had a blonde there, he was showing me his motorbike, pictures…”
He had been chosen by his family because he was the biggest and the strongest. He was very stressed by appointments with immigration, he was afraid of not carrying out his mission and of not succeeding in bringing the whole family here.
James
The youngster left his family after turning 18. He went to a person he described as a member of his family in Toronto. But Jacques is convinced that there was no relationship between the two.
Six other minors were then entrusted to Jacques’ family by PRAIDA within a few weeks. Some of them were from the Middle East, but the majority were from Southeast Asian countries. Almost all of them had flown to Boston alongside other adult migrants, then a caravan of taxis took them to Roxham Road.
Two of these children arrived with several suitcases. “They had nice clothes, nice shoes. They went to Toronto to, allegedly, the father of one of the two boys. They didn’t know his date of birth, where he was born…and they were way too polite on the phone to call it a family member. »
But “the straw that broke the camel’s back” for Jacques and his spouse was this request for accommodation for a 10-year-old child who arrived with a teenage “cousin”. “I found it appalling. The 10-year-old was obviously traumatized. He didn’t talk, he didn’t eat. When I asked him a question, he waited for the big guy to answer for him. The older one was playing video games and he didn’t seem to care. »
These two young people also left Quebec for Toronto. Jacques is still upset. “Do they serve as cheap labor? Who collects their check? Is it to pay off a debt they incurred to come here? »
*He asked us not to use his real name, as he is not authorized to speak to the media.
A “hazardous” plan
All the people involved in the world of immigration to whom we spoke believe that PRAIDA engages in serious investigations before entrusting minors alone to people who claim to be members of their family. “We make sure that they do go to family members,” says Lucie Tremblay, head of PRAIDA at the CIUSSS du Centre-Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal.
“There are investigations that are made to find out if it is really the aunt or the uncle. PRAIDA really follows up. If there is a family member here, they make sure it is indeed family. PRAIDA does its job. They question, ”adds lawyer Stéphanie Valois, specialist in refugee law.
The phenomenon of unaccompanied minors is nothing new for these players in the world of immigration. Recently, M.me Valois represented two sisters from Cameroon. The two girls came to the United States on their own at the ages of 11 and 15. They lived with a family friend who ended up kicking them out when the big sister came of age. They arrived in Canada at 18 and 14 years old.
“The big one works, she takes care of her little sister, says Mme Valois. We did some research with the Red Cross to find their parents. They disappeared. The two young girls are still awaiting a decision in their case.
Families can indeed send a child to seek asylum with the aim of attracting other relatives. But this plan is often doomed to failure, observes Stéphane Reichhold, of the Roundtable of organizations serving refugees and immigrants.
The child must first be recognized as a refugee, which can take a year or two. Then, he must come of age to sponsor his parents. It can take years for this to materialize. It’s very risky.
Stéphane Reichhold, from the round table of organizations serving refugees and immigrants
Fears about possible networks of exploitation of these lone minors are still present, says the worker who works closely with these unaccompanied minors. “When we have a doubt, we call on the DPJ. If we fear for the safety of the child, if there are suspicions of abuse, it is up to the DYP to assess that. A report has been made. If the report is upheld, they take over the file. »
And the DPJ does not trifle with such cases, relates a worker from the greater Montreal region. Recently, a 17-year-old European girl was housed in a reception center “because it is clear that there is a network after her”, she says. The youngster had arrived by air, and not via Roxham Road.
“We could have put her on a plane and sent her back to her country, but the police are certain that she would have been intercepted at the airport. It’s quite a debate: should we keep it here or return it? »