Proposed amendment to increase removal costs CCR comments

Introduction The following are the comments of the Canadian Council for Refugees on the proposed amendment to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations published in the Canada Gazette, Part I, Volume 157, Number 48. [...] As a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Canada has a legal obligation to give primary consideration to the best interests of any children affected by a decision. [...] • Where a parent is removed, children remaining in Canada, including Canadian citizen children, will experience prolonged separation, contrary to the best interests of the child, when the family is unable to come up with the money to reimburse the increased removal expenses. [...] • Canadian citizen children may also accompany a deported parent and then be unable to return to Canada, contrary to the best interests of the child, even after the parent secures an immigration route to return, because of the inability to reimburse the removal costs. [...] Even if they are mentally ready to choose to depart from Canada (which is rare), they usually don’t have time to find the money to pay for a flight out of Canada, wind up their affairs in Canada (where they may have been living for years), and arrange for somewhere to go in the country of origin, or apply to be admitted to a third country.