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.
Once a
CIC officer decides that a refugee protection claimant
is eligible to be referred, the claim is sent to the
Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) where a hearing
takes place before an independent tribunal comprised of
Refugee Protection Division members who determine
whether the claimant is a convention refugee or a person
in need of protection.
The
hearing although non adversarial in nature usually takes
place in the presence of the applicant’s legal counsel
and the government’s refugee claims officer. If approved
the claimant may apply for permanent residence from
within Canada. The process generally concludes in about
18 months.
Prior
to the hearing claimants are entitled under Canadian law
to obtain employment authorization, student
authorization and have access to Canada’s universal
health care coverage.
Certain
categories of individuals who are not eligible to have
their claim referred to the IRB.
Credit: Colin R. Singer, Attorney At Law
