Canada’s refugee acceptance rate peaked in four years

Canada’s refugee acceptance rate shot up drastically last year with two out of three claims granted asylum, according to latest data from the Immigration and Refugee Board. In total, adjudicators rendered 5,414 positive decisions and rejected 2,732 claims out of 9,171 decisions made. The rest were either abandoned or withdrawn by the claimants.

The 2016 refugee acceptance rate, at 66.1 per cent, is the highest since the revamp of the asylum processing system by the former Conservative government in 2012. It surpassed the rates in the previous years — 38.1 per cent in 2013, 38.8 in 2014 and 45.5 per cent in 2015.
Unlike previous years, when some decision makers actually rejected every single case they heard, the latest figures showed none of the board’s 100 or so refugee judges had a zero acceptance rate in 2016. “The positive news is the consistency of decision making is improving. It reflects the professionalization of the decision makers from (government) appointees to civil servants,” said Osgoode Hall Law School professor Sean Rehaag, who obtained the data.

“The system has become more protective, but there is still subjectivity in the adjudication process.”
The refugee board data showed one-third of the asylum refusals under appeals at the appeal tribunal were successful, said Rehaag, suggesting wrong decisions continued to be made despite the merits of the claims. Some countries that are designated as “safe” in Canada’s refugee system for fast-tracking also produced many positive refugee decisions. Hungary, for example, had a 66.9 per cent acceptance rate with 529 individuals, predominantly Roma minorities, granted asylum in 2016.

Claimants from all six countries under U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel and refugee bans announced Monday also enjoyed above-average success. Eighty per cent of Iranian refugees were granted asylum; 89 per cent for Libyans; 71.6 per cent for Somalis; 72.7 per cent for Sudanese; 97.2 per cent for Syrians; and 92.5 Yemenis. Refugees from Djibouti, which, along with the Sudanese, are among the biggest groups of irregular crossers into Canada in recent weeks, had an 89.1 per cent acceptance rate. Of the 46 Djibouti asylum claims heard in 2016, only five were rejected.

-Toronto Star