Thousands of
people who fled to Canada to escape President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal
migrants have become trapped in legal limbo because of an
overburdened refugee
system, struggling to find work, permanent housing or enroll their children in
schools.
Refugee
claims are taking longer to be completed than at any time in the past five years,
according to previously unpublished Immigration and Refugee Board data provided
to Reuters. Those wait times are set to grow longer after the IRB in April
allocated “up to half” of its 127 tribunal members to focus on old cases. The
number of delayed hearings more than doubled from 2015 to 2016 and is on track
to increase again this year.
Hearings are
crucial to establishing a claimant’s legal status in Canada. Without that
status, they struggle to convince employers to hire them or landlords to rent
to them. Claimants cannot access loans or student financial aid, or update
academic or professional credentials to meet Canadian standards.
Canada's
refugee system was struggling to process thousands of applications even before
3,500 asylum seekers began crossing the U.S. border on foot in January. It
lacks the manpower to complete security screenings for claimants and hear cases
in a timely manner. Often there are not enough tribunal members to decide cases
or interpreters to attend hearings, the IRB said.
More than
4,500 hearings scheduled in the first four months of 2017 were canceled,
according to the IRB data.
The
government is now focused on clearing a backlog of about 24,000 claimants,
including people who filed claims in 2012 or earlier. That means more than
15,000 people who have filed claims so far this year, including the new
arrivals from the United States, will have to wait even longer for their cases
to be heard.
Asylum
cases are already taking longer to finalize, on average, than at any time since
Canada introduced a statutory two-month time limit in 2012. This year, it has
been taking 5.6 months on average, compared to 3.6 months in 2013.
Mohamed
Daud, 36, left his family and a pending refugee claim in the United States and
walked into Canada in February after hearing rumors of U.S. immigration raids.
Daud, originally from Somalia, had been living and working legally in Nebraska
but feared he would be detained and then deported at an upcoming check-in with
immigration officials.
His May 8
hearing with a Canadian refugee tribunal was canceled three days beforehand. He
has not been given a new date.
"I
don’t know when they will call me. I can’t work. It isn’t easy," said
Daud. While waiting for a work permit, he gets approximately C$600 ($453) a
month in government social assistance and shares a room in an apartment with
six other asylum seekers.
Still, Daud
doesn't regret abandoning his life in the United States.
"The
worry, the fear is the same," he said.
To try to
speed cases through, Canada’s refugee tribunal has put people from certain
war-torn countries such as Syria and Yemen on an expedited track that requires
no hearings.
Border agents
are working overtime to address the backlog in security screenings, said Scott
Bardsley, spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, who oversees the
Canada Border Services Agency.
INDEFINITE
WAIT
Asylum
claimants are eligible for work permits while awaiting hearings, but employers
are often reluctant to employ people with temporary social insurance numbers
whose future is uncertain, refugee lawyers told Reuters.
"How do
you establish yourself when your status is unknown?" said Toronto-based
lawyer Aadil Mangalji.
This year is
on track to be the highest year for refugee claims since at least 2011,
according to government statistics.
The stresses
on the Canadian system mirror those of other countries with an open door
policy. In Sweden, rising financial strains involved in resettlement were
partly behind a move to introduce tough asylum laws.
Honduran
Raul Contreras, 19, who walked across the Quebec border in March and whose
hearing has been postponed indefinitely, is staying in a government-subsidized
Toronto hotel with his mother, step-father and uncle. Contreras, who spends his
days at a local library or working out in the hotel gym, says he has been
repeatedly rejected by landlords.
"They
just said that they didn't rent places to refugee claimants," he said.
"(They) said that refugees don't have jobs and probably wouldn't
pay."
REUTERS*
0 Comments