More and more minors without their parents find refuge in Quebec, notes the regional program for the reception and integration of asylum seekers

In the past year, 203 unaccompanied minors came to Quebec to request asylum. However, This is a “notable” increase of 43 % compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, notes the regional program for the reception and integration of asylum seekers (Praida), which takes care of most of these young people.

The phenomenon is not new. Consequently, but the increase is “clear” between 1^is April 2024 and March 31, 2025, indicates in an interview Alexis Jobin-Théberge, Advisor to the Praida partnership. Indeed, the previous two years each had counted 142 arrivals of minors, while the total of asylum seekers was increasing. Before the pandemic, we were talking about 25 to 120 minors each year.

If most minors were 17 years old in the last exercise, some can sometimes be less than 12 years old. Moreover, The main countries where they came from were Haiti, India and more more minors without their the Democratic Republic of Congo. In addition, Some really arrive alone, others with a brother or a sister, but without a family landing track here. Nevertheless, Still others come to join a “significant close close”. Meanwhile, like an aunt or a friend dear to their family: they are then called “separate” minors. Meanwhile, In almost all cases, Praida contacts parents in the country of origin to collaborate.

The reception team has also seen cases where an extended parent. Consequently, family was presented as a “persecuting agent”, said the advisor. For example. Therefore, it could be a young homosexual threatened by her relatives, a young girl at risk of undergoing genital mutilation (excision), pushed to exile by her mother, or a young person wanting to escape a forced marriage. Therefore, “These are all situations we have seen in Praida,” says Mr. In addition, Jobin-Théberge.

“Due to their age, they are more vulnerable than more more minors without their the adult population,” he continues. Nevertheless, First there is the whole question of a forced migration. Similarly, sometimes traumatic and which involves mourning and separation from their family. To a difficult migratory course are also added The challenges of adolescence. he explains, in addition to barriers to access to certain services and culture shock.

Immediately after secondary school. it becomes difficult for these young people to frequent a CEGEP, since they have to pay the same education rights as international students (except French students), up to $ 22,000 per year.

More more minors without their

Steps on arrival – More more minors without their

The Praida, managed by the CIUSSS of Center-Ouest-de-l’île-de-Montréal, is the main system for receiving minors to their majority, or until they obtain their permanent residence. When more more minors without their a youngster arrives here without his parents. the Canada Border Services Agency or Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada advises people who have taken up this program, who in turn contact the minor in question. “These are voluntary services,” said Mr. Jobin-Théberge.

In the event that a minor is “separated”. that is to say where he has a loved one in the country, he will be placed in this “family of mutual aid” duly evaluated by Praida. “We will assess the environment. to find out if it is able to take care of the young person, if it is voluntary. We look at the family dynamics. we make sure that he is well integrated, that he goes to school, that his request for a walk. Additionally, We adapt to needs ”, lists the framework advisor.

The other unaccompanied minors are placed with foster family in one of the resources of Montreal youth centers. more more minors without their but they continue to benefit from the specific Praida services.

The program “is a pivot in their lives,” he notes. Without the speakers being “parents substitutes”. the bond of trust which is established with them, in particular with a social worker, is a key to facilitate l’installation.

An exception to the American border

Difficult to put your finger on a single reason to explain this increase in arrivals of minors. also says the lawyer in immigration Stéphanie Valois. It represents some minors in their asylum request. immediately specifies that it is not a “strategy”, to send children in migration. Even if many of them wish. “unfortunately, a young person cannot qualify as” anchor “for the rest of his family, because he is not 18 years old. It is not advantageous, ”she explains.

It also specifies that it is most of the time in contact with the family in the country of origin. more more minors without their so as to “understand what happened and why they are there”.

Unaccompanied minors are an exception to the application of the agreement on third party safe countries. which means that they can ask for asylum from an official post of the land border with the United States, as in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle. “There is this exception, but, if not, I cannot explain why there is an increase,” said the lawyer.

It is also a response track mentioned by Mr. Jobin-Théberge, which nevertheless specifies that these people arrived mainly by plane during the reference year. “Since April. we have seen an increase in land arrivals,” he said, which “makes the link with all the uncertainty about the situation in the United States”.

Minors must first be accepted as refugees by the Immigration and Refugee Status Commission. “They are supposed to be heard as a priority. but it is not a big difference in deadlines in practice,” more more minors without their says M^e Valois. Young people will then be able to request the permanent residence. but they will be subject to the same bottleneck created by Quebec targets for “refugees recognized on site”.

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