Canada intends to change the law to make it harder for asylum seekers rejected by countries like the US to file refugee claims at the border
The move comes as thousands of asylum seekers have crossed the border after their claims were rejected in the US
Amendments were introduced on Monday evening in the Liberal government’s 392-page omnibus budget bill
An influx of asylum seekers crossing at the US-Canada border has become a hot button political issue
The law would allow immigration officers at the border to reject refugee claims if the asylum seeker has already made a claim in another country that has an immigration information-sharing agreement with Canada
These countries include the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand
The asylum seeker would no longer be entitled to an oral hearing and the claim could not be appealed to an independent tribunal
Instead, denied claimants would have the right to submit a written, pre-removal risk assessment, which lawyer Kevin Wiener says has about a 3% success rate
“I expect this to be a major change for Canada’s refugee system and I’m surprised to see it buried in a budget bill,” he told the BBC in an email
“If immigration officers are going to be the new front-line decision-makers for a large volume of refugee claims, then the government needs to make sure they do a better job at providing fair and reasonable decision-making”
Some 20,000 asylum seekers crossed at the US border in 2018, many of whom had already made refugee claims in the US
There are over 200,000 pending asylum claims, and the wait for hearings by Canada’s refugee board have edged up to an average of 20 months