Photo credit: Toronto Star
Immigration Minister Marc Miller says further reforms to Canada’s immigration and asylum systems will be proposed in the coming weeks.er
CTV News reports that this follows a significant cut to the targeted number of permanent residents admitted to Canada in the next two years and tighter rules around temporary worker permits.
Statistics show the average wait time to process refugees and asylum claims is around 44 months. The minister told the House of Commons immigration committee Monday that the asylum and refugee system is not working as it should due to the volume and inefficiency.
He said, “I want to reform the system: It’s not working in the way it should.
“The growing claims that we see now, inland, are not unexpected. They’re ones that we saw with people having increasingly fewer hopes to stay in Canada and being counselled to file, I think unjustly, asylum claims where they shouldn’t have the ability to do so.”
Inland asylum claims are those made outside of regular ports of entry. People must have been in Canada for at least two weeks before making such a claim. According to government data, 635 of these claims were processed between January and September this year.
Earlier, in the testimony, the minister said an increasing number of people on student visas have been filing asylum claims.
