The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada says it is changing its approach for scheduling asylum hearings in order to cope with “increasing refugee claims” and “global instability.”
The board has seen a dramatic increase in the number of inland refugee claimants (those who arrive in Canada and seek asylum) from 10,751 in 2013 to 16,914 in 2015. Just nine months into 2016, 16,279 claims had been filed and the yearly tally, which isn’t yet available, is expected to reach 20,000.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s anti-refugee and anti-immigrant policies coupled with as Ottawa’s recent move to lift the visa requirements for Mexican travellers mean Canada is expected to see its annual asylum claims peak again this year.
In a terse notice, the board said it will redeploy up to half of its capacity to address its backlog of claims, which stands at more than 21,000, while the rest of staff will continue to focus on newly arrived claims that must be heard within 60 days under the controversial statutory timelines imposed by the former Conservative government.
In the last year or so, lawyers have been complaining of delays by the Canada Border Services Agency in issuing security clearances, which refugees need before their claims can be heard. If they don’t have a security clearance at their first hearing, lawyers say, claimants are doomed to wait “in a black hole” until a new hearing is scheduled.
“Under a new process, certain claims identified by the (board’s) refugee protection division as straightforward will be scheduled for a short hearing,” said the notice issued Friday.
“The expectation is that a substantial majority of these claims will be finalized at the end of the short hearing. The provision to grant refugee protection to certain claims without a hearing will remain.”
The board didn’t respond to the Star’s inquires about the changes Friday.
Refugee advocates and immigration lawyers welcomed the changes but said the measures are long overdue.
“I have had clients who have been waiting for three, four years to get their cases scheduled, suffering acute depression from being separated from their families,” said lawyer Lorne Waldman, past president of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers.
“The backlog is extremely serious. The (board) is slow in coming up with creative solution. This is an urgent problem that needs to be addressed right away.”
The board said countries that have a refugee acceptance rate of 80 per cent and above will be the first to be considered for the new short hearing process, while a separate expedited program will continue to be limited to claimants from war-torn Syria, Iraq and Eritrea.
Janet Dench of the Canadian Council for Refugees said the expedited program is not necessarily faster but is less resource-intensive because claims are assessed in less formal interviews than full hearings.
“The expedited program should not be limited to several countries only,” she said, adding that there are still 5,631 so-called legacy cases — filed before the Conservative’s refugee reforms in 2012 — that are languishing as priorities are given to new claims with statutory timelines.
Waldman said the refugee board should introduce a triage system to stream all claims at the front end and fast-track the solid and strong cases that do not require too much scrutiny. “It is not a matter of country. It is a matter of claims and how well documented they are,” he said.
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