Canada urged to track unaccompanied minors arriving from Ukraine
Resettlement groups believe hundreds of teens may have arrived alone under special visa
An Ontario child welfare organization is recommending Canada establish a central registry to track unaccompanied minors arriving here after fleeing the war in Ukraine.
The Child Welfare Immigration Centre of Excellence (CWICE) was commissioned by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to study the issue of teens who arrive alone under the Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel (CUAET) program.
Under CUAET, Ukrainians escaping Russia's full-scale invasion of their country are allowed to live, work and study in Canada for up to three years. The federal government recently extended the application deadline until July 15.
As of May 6, more than one million Ukrainians had applied to come to Canada under CUAET, and more than 700,000 of those applications had been approved. According to the latest figures from IRCC, more than 150,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Canada under the emergency travel program.
'They are all scattered'
As CBC reported last fall, some of those newcomers are teenagers who travel to Canada without parents or guardians, and while many of those young people have arranged accommodation before their arrival, some have not. Nor is the federal government tracking them after they land, leaving that responsibility to a network of resettlement agencies and volunteer groups.
"They are all scattered. We get calls regularly about them, but we don't know where all of them are," CWICE's Liz Okai told CBC in November.
At the time, volunteers coordinating the arrival of Ukrainians in Canada estimated the potential number of unaccompanied minors to be in the hundreds, but no one knew for sure. Whatever the number, it has almost certainly increased over the last six months.
CWICE's report, released in April and titled "Unaccompanied and Separated Children [UASC] under CUAET: A call to position Canada as Best in Class Leader in the protection and welfare of children and youth," recommends "a national process to identify and register UASC with a centralized agency to ensure these vulnerable young people are safe and connected to the resources they need."
Vulnerable young people
According to the report, neither Canadian border agents nor IRCC officials are systematically identifying the unaccompanied minors at any point on their journey.
"As no one has the current responsibility to track or report this data, it is impossible to identify UASC under the CUAET visa. Yet this is critical information which will help address gaps identified," according to the report.
CWICE researched and wrote the report in partnership with Jewish Immigrant Aid Services Toronto. The authors consulted dozens of individuals from 26 separate organizations, from federal ministries to local volunteer groups. Representatives from IRCC participated in the consultations, according to CWICE.
"There was consensus that more needs to be done to track how many UASC are entering Canada, assess their safety, and plan for their eventual reunification with their families," CWICE manager Danielle Ungara wrote in an email to CBC.
"At this point, no such database exists at a national level, which makes it difficult to identify and support these vulnerable young people."
No common definition
Similarly, the report highlights the lack of a common definition of unaccompanied and separated children, a potentially useful tool for authorities attempting to intervene when things go wrong.
"Through the consultations, it became apparent there is no consensus on the definition of UASC in Canada, which results in more confusion when crises arise. This is most strikingly apparent with UASC arriving through the CUAET visa," according to the report.
The introduction of the CUAET visa has also laid bare financial inequities between different resettlement programs, and could leave some of the most vulnerable newcomers at a disadvantage, the authors found.
"The type, amount, and duration of financial supports vary depending on an individual's immigration status," Ungara explained. "This may be confusing for service providers and create inequities for those arriving in Canada. CWICE takes the position that support should be based on need, rather than immigration status."
'Very positive' response from IRCC
According to Ungara, the initial response to CWICE's report has been "very positive," and IRCC "has shown a keen interest in cross-sector collaboration."
In an email to CBC, IRCC confirmed it has received the report and "continues to consult with its partners and external stakeholders as we review the recommendations included within it."
The department also confirmed that because CUAET recipients aren't required to provide travel itineraries beforehand, "it is difficult for IRCC officers to confirm whether a minor intends to travel alone when assessing their application. As such, IRCC is not able to track the number of CUAET applications submitted by unaccompanied minors."
According to Ungara, CWICE is ready and willing to take the lead on establishing a national registry of unaccompanied minors arriving from Ukraine under CUAET.
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