Asylum claims from foreign nationals hoping to be accepted as refugees in Canada have risen 62.3 per cent for the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year.
The latest data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) reveals the number of asylum claims hit 92,130 for the first six months of this year compared to 56,760 last year.
A decade ago, Canada received only 16,050 asylum claims for all of 2015. Now, it’s receiving almost that many in any given month. In May alone, there were 16,045 asylum claims in Canada.
With record-breaking levels of both permanent and temporary immigration, the federal government has been under political pressure to cut back.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller said the City of Toronto has worked tirelessly to support asylum claimants by providing temporary housing and services.
“They are essential partners in helping us respond to the rising number of asylum claims and supporting the needs of those fleeing persecution, oppression and conflict,” said Miller.
“We will continue to be there to support those vulnerable individuals and work with our municipal colleagues to see how we can best support them.”
Toronto is the capital of Canada’s most populous province, Ontario, which saw a 163.2 per cent increase in the number of asylum claimants filing those refugee applications upon arrival at an airport in the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year.
The province also saw a 159.1 per cent jump in the number of asylum claimants filing inland applications in the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year, IRCC data reveals.
But Ontario was certainly not the only province to experience a surge in asylum claimants in the first half of this year compared to the first six months of last year.
Manitoba’s Inland Asylum Claims Show Biggest Increase
Across those time periods, Alberta saw a rise of 103.2 per cent in asylum claimants filing their applications at airports and a 223.7 spike in such applicants at inland offices.
Quebec saw a 71.2-per cent spike in applications for refugee status at airports and a 115.6-per cent jump in such applications at inland offices.
The biggest percentage increase in asylum claimant applications, though, was the 613-per cent spike in the number of such applications at inland offices in Manitoba in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year.
Canada is a signatory to the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.
Each year Canada grants permanent residence to approximately 30,000 refugees under an elaborate refugee protection process comprising of two main components, the Refugee and Humanitarian Resettlement Program administered outside Canada and the In-Canada Refugee Protection Process.
A convention refugee is a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.
A person in need of protection is a person in Canada whose removal to their country of nationality or former habitual residence would subject them to the possibility of torture, risk of life, or risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.
The majority of approved refugees are granted asylum status inside Canada and make their claim at a Canadian port of entry or at an inland Canada Immigration Centre office.
