Vineberg: A new approach to processing refugees could clear Canada’s backlog

Good practical suggestion by my friend and former colleague Rob Vineberg:

…The solution is to turn over the responsibility for the initial determination of refugee status to officers of the immigration department. The IRCC is a huge department with more than 13,000 employees (not all, of course, being immigration officers). If the resources at the IRB used for the initial determination were transferred to IRCC as well, there would be a much larger and more flexible work force to make the initial refugee determination decisions.

All refugee claimants interviewed and approved by an IRCC officer would obtain refugee status in a far timelier manner. Furthermore, refugee claimants refused by an IRCC officer would have an automatic right of appeal to the IRB, thus meeting the requirements of the Singh decision. Let’s recognize that the current refugee determination system is broken and build a new one with the capacity to handle the volumes Canada is facing, and will face in the future.

Source: A new approach to processing refugees could clear Canada’s backlog