Canada Plans to Cut Down Refugee Acceptance

By William Miller

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

OTTAWA, Canada  Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said that Canada plans to cut the number of people receiving refugee status next year. Specifically, the plan will target those who make their claim for refugee status after entering the country. The plan expects to give refugee status to between nine and twelve thousand people who filed their claim after arriving in Canada. This is less than half of what was expected in 2006.

Kenney, who promised to unveil a plan for reform before Christmas, has long criticized the current refugee system as being inefficient and ripe for abuse. Canada currently spends 29,000 dollars per claimant and had a backlog of 60,000 claims when Kenney made his promise last month.

The process can take up to five years and provides three stages of appeal in federal court. Kenney called this inefficiency “an advertisement for people to come and abuse the system.” He has alleged that the system is commonly abused by what he calls “bogus claimants” who come to the country illegally and receive advice from “phony immigration consultants” on how to cheat the system and gain refugee status.

Kenney has criticized the current plans consideration of those who enter the country illegally, saying “We want to ensure that we don’t end up with a two-tier immigration system, one tier for legal law-abiding immigrants who wait patiently to come to Canada the legal way, and another that incentizes (sic) false refugee claimants to come through the back door.”

The cuts have been met with criticism from those who fear the plan is insensitive to the hardships prospective refugees are looking to escape. Immigration critic Olivia Chow stated: “Beatings, torture, suffering and even deaths will occur and unfortunately many will be turned away. Canada is no longer a land of hope and compassion.”

Canada’s current immigration system accepts a great deal of people seeking refugee status, many of whom enter the country illegally before filing their claim. In 2008, Canada accepted 22,000 refugees many of whom had applied after arriving in Canada. In 2006, tolerance for in-country applications peaked in Canada, with an estimate of between 22,500 and 28,800 applications for refugee status from those already in the country. Just last month, on October 17, Canadian authorities stopped seventy-six Tamil refugees trying to enter the country illegally to escape oppression in Sri Lanka. Those men will be able to apply for refugee status despite concerns that there may be members of the Tamil tigers hiding among them. Tamil tigers are a rebel group currently at war with the government in Sri Lanka.

For more information, please see:

Ottawa Citizen – Immigration Minister Jason Kenney Cuts Refugee Targets for 2010 – 2 November 2009

Ottawa Citizen – Would-be Migrants will Face Tough Scrutiny: Kenney – 20 October 2009

National Post – Refugee System Reforms in Works, Kenny Says – 7 October 2009

Author: Impunity Watch Archive