More than 200 children whose parents are refugee claimants are unable to access free health care, even though their parents are covered by Manitoba Health.
“They’re being denied access to Manitoba Health while their parents have no problem registering for a health card and receiving care,” Emily Halldorson with the Manitoba Association of Newcomer Serving Organizations said at a Migrant Rights Network rally Tuesday.
“They’re being questioned about their immigration status, their intention to remain in Manitoba throughout the claim process and they’re being asked for documentation that doesn’t exist in order to prove that they have a legitimate need and right to this health care,” Halldorson told the dozens who gathered outside Union Centre on Broadway.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS
Chris Scott, ATU President, speaks at a rally beside the Union Centre at 275 Broadway, Tuesday, to demand equal rights, permanent resident status for all migrants.
Temporary foreign workers, international students and asylum seekers are being “scapegoated” by governments, denied basic rights and services and blamed for many of Canada’s problems, speakers at the rally said.
In the last year-and-a-half, Manitoba has seen an increase in the number of asylum seekers making a refugee claim.
In Manitoba, the total number of asylum claims processed by Canada Border Services Agency and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada was 300 in 2022. The number more than doubled to 760 in 2023.
In just the first six months of 2024, there were 1,060.
While those seeking asylum wait an average of two years for their refugee claim to be adjudicated, they have a right to work and health care, but the children who accompanied them are being denied access to Manitoba Health coverage, Halldorson said.
“Refugee claimant children are consistently not receiving the health care that they need,” she said.
“This is a small number of kids — only 200 to 300 under 18 years of age. We need to speak up for them — loudly.”
Halldorson said MANSO has been in communication with Manitoba Health’s insured benefits branch about the matter since 2019, and has regular meetings with government to address barriers to health care access for newcomers.
“We’re not getting anywhere,” she said.
Halldorson wouldn’t go into detail with the Free Press about specific cases but provided one example of a child with a chronic health condition who required tests that had a service provider scrambling — unsuccessfully — to arrange Manitoba Health coverage.
“In those situations, they’re probably going to have to take the care as a non-resident and figure out what the bills will be later,” she said. “You can’t mess around with a critical health issue; you could die.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS
The rally called on Canadians to reject racist scapegoating related to housing, healthcare, and affordability crises.
“Luckily, many of these kids… are healthy, so it hasn’t been a big issue.”
There is, however, much concern for children not receiving “mundane, regular care,” including checkups and immunizations, she said.
“We want kids to be having access to that.”
Halldorson noted the same children have been able to attend public schools in the province.
“Manitoba Health should figure something out like the Department of Education did,” she said.
A spokesperson for provincial cabinet communications said the gap in health coverage for the children lies with the federal government.
“Manitoba’s role is to provide health coverage as soon as the federal government has established a person’s residency, but there are instances when a person’s pathway shifts, and it impacts their children,” the spokesperson said.
“In order for Manitoba to provide coverage there are steps required by the federal government to ensure children get coverage when they are determining a family’s residency status.”
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter
Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.
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