Refugee tribunal ruled on more than 45,000 cases since 2019 without in-person hearings

Yet another policy and program failure that undermines public confidence in immigration and refugees:

The independent tribunal that decides refugee claims has since 2019 ruled on more than 45,000 asylum cases based on paperwork alone without an in-person hearing, raising concerns from the Conservatives and experts that this could dilute scrutiny and compromise national security. 

Figures provided to MPs on the Commons immigration committee by the Immigration and Refugee Board show that in that period, Iranian asylum claimants have had the most claims decided without an in-person hearing, with 10,730 claims decided based on paper reviews of their files. 

Last year, 2,218 cases of alleged persecution in Iran – where the theocratic regime has imprisoned and killed scores of its critics – were decided after reviewing the files of asylum applicants, with 2,105 decided without a hearing in 2024 and 3,124 in 2023. 

Between 2019 and 2025, the IRB decided 45,595 cases through “paper processes.” These included 4,220 paper-only asylum decisions on cases from Afghanistan. There were 484 such “file-review” adjudications from Palestinians, 6,827 from Turkey, 1,273 from Yemen, 2,542 from Pakistan and 256 from Iraq, the IRB figures show. 

Asylum claimants from Haiti had 3,379 cases decided without a hearing between 2019 and 2025, including 2,471 last year. …

James Yousif, a former member of the IRB who adjudicated on cases, has been raising concerns that paper-only decisions could heighten the risk of fraud and weaken security screening.

“It is not possible to tell a true claim from a made-up claim just by reading the documents in each file,” he said in an e-mail. “Asking questions at a hearing is absolutely essential to detecting fraud and risks to Canada’s national security. There is no substitute for this.” 

Ms. Metlege Diab previously told MPs on the committee that each person claiming asylum is subject to security screening. She said decisions are made on a case-by-case basis by the IRB tribunal, which operates independently of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

But in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail, Mr. Redekopp expressed concern that the file-review process is being used “to expedite asylum claims without interviewing claimants, even from high-risk countries like Iran.” 

“Even worse, the Immigration Minister won’t take responsibility for this security gap, saying the IRB is independent – even though she is the minister responsible for the IRB,” he said. “Canadians expect a rigorous and thorough immigration vetting process and we are calling on the Immigration Minister to take action.”…

Source: Refugee tribunal ruled on more than 45,000 cases since 2019 without in-person hearings