Humanitaire
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Legitimate refugees coming to Canada will receive protection more quickly and bogus asylum seekers will be removed faster under a new refugee system that will soon come into force, Canadian Immigration and Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney announced here Friday.
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"While our system is considered very unfair, it has also become in many respects dysfunctional," he told reporters at a news conference.
Kenney explained that as many as 60,000 claimants have waited for as long as 21 months just to get a hearing before the independent Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) of Canada.
However as of Dec. 15, bona-fide asylum claimants will receive a hearing within 60 days after their claim is referred to the IRB, compared to the average of nearly 600 days they've had to wait in the past.
False claimants will be removed from Canada within a year of the IRB's final decision a more expedited process than the four- and-a-half years it usually takes before a bogus refugee has exhausted all loopholes under the current system.
Kenney said that last year, 62 percent of all asylum claims were abandoned or withdrawn by the applicants or rejected by the IRB by claimants "seeking to abuse Canada's generosity."
He added that on Dec. 15, the Canadian government plans to release a list of designated countries of origin (DCOs) that normally don't produce refugees, but that respect human rights and offer state protection, and that will be identified based on a high number of failed claims or those abandoned or withdrawn by the applicants originating from those "safe" countries.
DCO claimants will have their refugee hearings expedited and held within 30 days, if the claim is made at an inland Canadian immigration office, or 45 days, if it is submitted at a port of entry.
However, they will not be able to appeal if their claim is rejected and, if they ask the Federal Court to review a negative decision, they could still be deported from Canada before a decision is rendered.
Yet legitimate refugee claimants will have access to a new Refugee Appeal Division, which will have the authority to reverse a negative decision by the IRB if there is evidence to do so.
The new asylum system, a the result of two laws passed by Parliament - the Balanced Refugee Reform Act (June 2010) and the Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act (June 2012), also expands provisions that bar serious criminals from even being able to make asylum claims.
Faster removal of failed claimants will help discourage individuals from using the asylum system to try to jump the immigration queue to enter Canada.
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