Liberals need to step in and fix asylum system: advocates, Opposition
OTTAWA — The Immigration and Refugee Board can only go so far to manage historic numbers of asylum claims and it’s now up to the Liberals to decide what kind of refugee system it wants, say refugee advocates, opposition MPs and the arms-length tribunal itself.
The board took the formal step this week of invoking an element of Canada’s immigration law that says it doesn’t have to follow legislated timelines to hear claims if doing so would unduly impact the operations of the board.
The switch to the new first-in, first-out approach is more fair to those seeking asylum, said Shereen Benzvy Miller, deputy chairperson of the refugee protection division.
But while measures like that and others have seen the board increase output by 40 per cent over the last year, it can still only hear about 2,000 cases a month — with 2,100 more being added to a backlog that currently has wait times of 20 months for new hearings.