Canada gave these former refugees a chance. Now they’re pushing back against anti-refugee claims

2026/06/22 Leave a comment

Of note:

…While success stories like hers are common, she said they have been overshadowed by narratives in recent years that portray refugees as a drain on Canada, rather than contributors. The surge of refugees in the country is just a reflection of the rising global displacement as a result of wars and unrest, she noted.

A 2024-25 public opinion poll by the Immigration Department found that just a third of Canadians felt that the impact of refugees on Canada was positive. Forty-eight per cent of respondents said Canada was admitting too many asylum seekers, while 41 per cent said the country was resettling too many refugees from abroad. Just over half agreed that “accepting refugees is part of Canada’s humanitarian tradition.” 

“The more you feed into this negative narrative, the more fearful society and the politicians become, and the more restrictive these policies become,” said Faizi, who was a corporate lawyer specializing in intellectual property rights, before switching to refugee law in 2021. 

That’s why the council has launched a week of action to highlight refugee contributions and show solidarity across Canada with them, leading up to the World Refugee Day on Saturday. It comes in the wake of Ottawa’s new law to restrict eligibility for asylum and rules to limit health-care coverage for refugees. 

The campaign — including an open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney, highlighting local events organized by its 200 member organizations across Canada and a tool kit to promote the message “We are Better Together” — also followed a report released by UNHCR Canada in early June that looked at the social and economic benefits of welcoming displaced people in need of protection….

Source: Canada gave these former refugees a chance. Now they’re pushing back against anti-refugee claims

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Critics say Canada’s new immigration and border law puts LGBTQ+ people in danger

2026/06/15 Leave a comment

Of note:

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Mark Carney and MPs from other political parties came together to raise the Pride flag on Parliament Hill.

But an advocacy group that helps LGBTQ refugees come to Canada and the U.S says the federal government’s new border law is putting people at risk of being sent back to countries where they face persecution.

Devon Matthews, Rainbow Railroad’s chief program officer, said her organization is concerned about its working relationship with Ottawa as the federal government reduces the number of refugees it admits and cuts the organization’s funding.

She said it’s also alarmed by a new law requiring that refugee claims be made within a year of the claimant’s first arrival in Canada.

“It has nothing to do with the reasons why someone may have waited or why someone doesn’t meet the one-year bar,” Matthews told The Canadian Press…

Source: Critics say Canada’s new immigration and border law puts LGBTQ+ people in danger

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Surprising drop in refugees and forcefully displaced people worldwide, UN reports

2026/06/12 Leave a comment

Of note:

Forced displacement from wars and persecution around the world fell for the first time in a decade, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

The latest data showed the number of people who were forced to leave their homes and remained displaced at the end of 2025 dropped by four per cent to 117.8 million from 123.2 million a year ago, the UNHCR said in a report released Thursday.

The decline reflected a sharp increase in the number of international refugees and internally displaced individuals who returned home last year in some of the countries with the largest displacement such as Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Syria.

In 2025, almost 5.4 million people had to flee and seek safety across borders, predominantly in neighbouring countries. The majority came from eight countries: Sudan (952,700), Ukraine (788,100), Venezuela (455,300), South Sudan (232,800), Burkina Faso (221,300), Afghanistan (191,400), Mali (177,200) and Myanmar (165,400).

Meanwhile, returns of both internationally and domestically displaced people rose by 50 per cent, reaching 14.7 million, the second highest level since records began 60 years ago. Returnees to the Democratic Republic of Congo (3.6 million), Sudan (3.6 million), Syria (3.3 million), Afghanistan (two million), Ukraine (718,300) and Myanmar (415,200) accounted for 92 per cent of all returns.

But in many cases, there’s little to celebrate….

Source: Surprising drop in refugees and forcefully displaced people worldwide, UN reports

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While I was away: Refugees

2026/06/08 Leave a comment

Refugee articles I found interesting:

Proposal to radically change how asylum seekers are settled in Canada heard by MPs

Getting some attention but not clear whether the government prepared to go there:

Canada should consider adopting the German model of distributing asylum seekers across the country based on tax revenues and local population, a parliamentary committee has heard.

The idea would be to more fairly share the burden of settling those seeking protection.

Barutciski: Fixing our asylum-seeker policy offers a chance to show a Canada that can work together

…While our southern neighbours exhibit the opposite dynamic, with polarized red and blue states using migration to deliberately provoke each other, Canada can distinguish itself through a functioning Parliament that shows how a federation is supposed to work. Not only would the noble idea of solidarity relieve pressure in a practical sense, it would also signal that Canada remains strong at a critical time in its history.

Thousands of failed refugee claimants may be eligible to keep federal health benefits, new report finds

Brings out the usual divide between refugee advocates and those concerned about possibly incentivizing claims:

Thousands of refugee claimants who have had their cases rejected and are facing deportation may remain eligible for publicly funded health benefits, including dental coverage and counselling, according to a new report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. 

The analysis of the Interim Federal Health Program, which provides health coverage for refugees and refugee claimants until they are eligible for provincial health plans and benefits, found that the annual cost of the program reached $822-million in 2024-25 and was fuelled in part by long waits to have cases heard.

The PBO report, published on Tuesday, found that nearly 74,000 “failed refugee claimants” may remain eligible for coverage. They may be able to obtain such benefits for years if they appeal their cases, including in Federal Court. 

Dental care represented a large share of spending in 2024-25, the report found, followed by prescription medication. Urgent dental spending increased to $257-million from $30-million over five years. The cost of counselling services rose to $38.7-million in 2024-25, while home health visits cost more than $12-million.

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Nadeau | «Aucun, c’est déjà trop»

2026/05/05 Leave a comment

Valid to discuss specifics rather than generalities:

…« On ne peut pas accueillir toute la misère du monde » : cette formule qui sert à se laver les mains me lève le cœur. Elle déplace la question pour mieux noyer le poisson. Au lieu de discuter de situations réelles — de personnes précises, de risques précis, de décisions précises —, elle remplace le problème par une abstraction gigantesque. Et face à une abstraction gigantesque, il devient toujours possible de conclure qu’il n’y a rien à faire, que c’est trop gros. Ainsi, la discussion est close avant même d’avoir commencé.

Cette rhétorique dit en réalité moins quelque chose sur la misère du monde que sur notre propre étroitesse morale. Elle exprime jusqu’où nous sommes prêts à ne pas voir la souffrance d’autrui.

L’immigration n’est pas une condition historique figée. Il suffit de peu, dans l’histoire, pour devoir chercher refuge ailleurs. Du jour au lendemain, des sociétés entières peuvent s’y trouver poussées. Entre 1880 et 1930, près de 900 000 Canadiens français ont émigré aux États-Unis pour échapper à la misère. La frontière entre ceux qui accueillent et ceux qui arrivent n’est jamais aussi claire qu’on veut bien le croire. Ceux qui parlent aujourd’hui des migrants comme de pestiférés oublient parfois qu’on peut vite devenir l’« immigrant » de quelqu’un d’autre.

Source: Chronique | «Aucun, c’est déjà trop»

Funny how the translation program is so literal on the gender of “formula” rather than using it:

…” We cannot welcome all the misery of the world”: this formula that is used to wash your hands raises my heart. She shifts the question to better drown the fish. Instead of discussing real situations — specific people, specific risks, precise decisions — she replaces the problem with a gigantic abstraction. And in the face of a gigantic abstraction, it always becomes possible to conclude that there is nothing to do, that it is too big. Thus, the discussion is closed before it has even begun.

This rhetoric actually says less about the misery of the world than about our own moral narrowness. It expresses how far we are willing not to see the suffering of others.

Immigration is not a fixed historical condition. It takes little, in history, to have to look for refuge elsewhere. Overnight, entire societies can find themselves pushed there. Between 1880 and 1930, nearly 900,000 French Canadians emigrated to the United States to escape poverty. The border between those who welcome and those who arrive is never as clear as we would like to believe. Those who today speak of migrants as plague victims sometimes forget that you can quickly become someone else’s “immigrant”.

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IRCC orders asylum claimants who crossed U.S. border irregularly to leave or face deportation

2026/04/16 Leave a comment

Implementation:

Asylum seekers who crossed the border from the United States irregularly and claimed asylum are being ordered by the immigration department to leave Canada as soon as possible or face being deported, after the passing of a new law tightening up asylum rules. 

Immigration lawyers have expressed fears that many foreign nationals receiving warning letters from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada will now cross back into the U.S. and be detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and deported. 

The immigration lawyers are also raising concerns that the letters don’t adequately inform asylum seekers that they may be eligible to remain in the country despite the new restrictions. The new law limits who can receive a hearing before the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, or IRB, potentially putting many asylum seekers on a fast-track to deportation.

The IRCC warning letters were sent to refugee claimants within days of the new law, known as Bill C-12, receiving royal assent last month. …

Source: IRCC orders asylum claimants who crossed U.S. border irregularly to leave or face deportation

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Tamil refugee who arrived on MV Sun Sea granted stay of deportation

2026/04/15 Leave a comment

Sloppy not doing the risk assessment:

A man who arrived in Canada seeking asylum with a boatload of Tamils 16 years ago has been spared deportation after court ruled Canadian officials have failed to properly assess the risk he’d face if returned to Sri Lanka.

Kugatheeswaran Thuraisinkam was among the 492 passengers aboard the highly publicized MV Sun Sea in 2010, who were deemed a national security threat by then prime minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.

Officials associated them with the separatist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and suggested some might have been terrorists. As a result, they had been detained for months and challenged at every step of their asylum process. 

Thuraisinkam has for years dealt with prolonged separation from his wife and three children, homelessness and mental illness. He says an agent mishandled his case and so it didn’t get properly assessed.

“This has been a very difficult process,” Thuraisinkam told the Star through an interpreter. “I am so scared of being deported. I have some relief now. I am very grateful to the courts for saving me.”

In staying Thuraisinkam’s April 16 deportation, Federal Court Judge Sébastien Grammond said Canadian authorities have not yet assessed the risk the man would be facing upon returning to Sri Lanka by virtue of having been a passenger of the MV Sun Sea.

And that’s what Judge William Pentney at the same court had asked the Canada Border Services Agency to do in quashing an officer’s refusal to defer Thuraisinkam’s removal last year.

“It is curious, to say the least, that CBSA is attempting to remove him again when the issue highlighted by Justice Pentney has not yet been resolved,” Grammond wrote in his ruling released this week. 

Like all passengers on the MV Sun Sea, Thuraisinkam was detained for months by Canadian border officials and made a refugee claim based on the fear of persecution of Tamils in Sri Lanka….

Source: Tamil refugee who arrived on MV Sun Sea granted stay of deportation

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Globe editorial: An immigration shortcut that’s short-circuited

2026/04/09 Leave a comment

Agreed but will require an effective minister with strong PM support. Good to see Vineberg’s suggestions:

…The IRB should scrap the file review policy. Meanwhile, Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab should take a broader look at the system, with a particular focus on tightening up the approval of asylum claims and international student permits.

Robert Vineberg, a former immigration department director-general, has sensibly suggested that the initial determination of refugee status be moved over to the immigration department. Staff there could do in-depth interviews with claimants, which would be faster than the quasi-judicial hearings at the IRB. 

The IRB could still be used to appeal disputed decisions. However, there needs to be limits on further appeals. The current system that offers multiple avenues to challenge decisions – mapped out in an elaborate flow chart by the Parliamentary Budget Officer – needs to be simplified. 

The asylum system does need to be streamlined, but removing questioning to vet for truthfulness is going too far. For Canada’s asylum system to hold up in the coming years, it needs to operate efficiently, balancing compassion with wide-eyed realism. This will allow Canada to continue offering a safe haven to vulnerable people from around the world. 

Source: An immigration shortcut that’s short-circuited

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Immigration officers don’t have latitude to probe refugee claims, experts say

2026/04/09 Leave a comment

Sigh…:

…But immigration lawyer Richard Kurland said current rules prevent those officers from probing the truth of asylum seekers’ stories.

“A person can show up at the border, give a written story prepared with AI, and the officer is instructed to not ask questions that will verify the credibility of the story. Even if officers want to question, and ask permission to so do, they can’t,” Mr. Kurland wrote in an e-mail. 

Internal documents Mr. Kurland obtained from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada under access to information law, which were reviewed by The Globe and Mail, show that immigration officers have been instructed not to block people’s access to the IRB only because they doubt their stories.

The documents include an e-mail sent in October of last year from an immigration official to a senior IRCC colleague asking, in response to questions from another officer, “if we believe the client is not being truthful, can we withhold our eligibility decision until they provide a reasonable story?”

The senior IRCC official, Gianfranco Bonofiglio, responded: “Our role is not to verify the credibility of their story/entry. The IRB (and R&I) will assess that. The declaration/interview we hold is just collecting facts/information.” …

James Yousif, a former IRCC policy director and IRB adjudicator, said such interviews alone are not sufficient.

“The questions asked by IRCC or CBSA officials before the file is referred to the IRB are intended to establish eligibility,” he said. “For example, if a person already has refugee status in another country, they may be ineligible to make a claim in Canada,” he said. 

“Fraud and national security issues often do not emerge until the claimant is questioned. If that happens, the IRB is required by law to halt the hearing and notify the relevant Minister.”…

Source: Immigration officers don’t have latitude to probe refugee claims, experts say

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AI being used to add fake details in immigration, asylum applications, federal officials say

2026/04/08 Leave a comment

Unfortunate but not surprising:

Artificial intelligence is being used to bolster immigration and asylum cases in Canada by generating fake narratives, including references to fabricated court decisions.

Both the federal department, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), and the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), an independent tribunal that rules on asylum applications, say they have detected the use of AI in applications containing fake or inaccurate information.

The IRB said that the use of AI in applications to stay in Canada as a refugee is creating a fresh challenge for its employees. 

“Recently, we have observed that memoranda of appeal are becoming lengthier, yet this increase in volume does not necessarily translate to stronger arguments. In fact, occasionally these documents include references to case law that do not exist or cite legal precedents for propositions they do not actually support,” the IRB in a statement. “This adds unnecessary complexity and time to our work.”…

Source: AI being used to add fake details in immigration, asylum applications, federal officials say

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