ottawa –
Immigration Minister Mark Miller said further reforms to Canada’s immigration and asylum system will be proposed in the coming weeks.
This comes on the heels of a significant reduction in the target number of permanent residents allowed to enter Canada over the next two years and stricter rules on permitting temporary workers.
According to statistics provided by Canadian authorities, the average waiting time for processing refugee and asylum applications is approximately 44 months.
Miller told the House Immigration Committee on Monday that the asylum and refugee system is not working as well as it should due to volume and inefficiency.
“We want to reform the system. The system isn’t working the way it should,” Miller said.
“The increase in applications we are currently seeing in the interior is not unexpected. This is because people are increasingly discouraged from wanting to remain in Canada and are being encouraged to apply for asylum in places they should not be applying. It’s something that I see in people who have the ability to do that. ”
Inland asylum applications are applications made outside of normal ports of entry. People must have been in Canada for at least two weeks before making such a claim. According to government data, 635 of these claims were processed between January and September this year.
Mr. Miller opened his testimony by saying that more people are filing asylum claims on student visas.
Protesters at the commission held placards that read: “Don’t deport us! Don’t be racist! Don’t cut back on rights! Status for all!” As such, this can be an emotionally charged issue. At the end of Miller’s testimony.
As the minister left the committee room, one demonstrator from the group Migrant Workers Alliance for Change told him: “We are the ones you are trying to kick out of this country.” . The group of about 20 people was escorted from the building by Congressional security forces.
In her questioning, NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan addressed calls to repeal recent immigration changes that say immigrants are being scapegoated for issues such as the housing crisis.
Mr. Miller responded that being a Canadian citizen is not a right.
“It’s not the right to be a permanent resident. It’s not the right to be a Canadian citizen. If you don’t do that, it’s going to be diluted. That’s what I strongly believe,” Miller said.
“That doesn’t mean treating people unfairly at the same time, and those who have promised on their visas to leave once this situation is over obviously have to honor that.”
Miller added that the issue is sensitive, which is why the goal is to have 40 per cent of new permanent residents come from people already living in Canada.
As of the end of September, nearly 250,000 asylum applications needed to be decided. During the same period, 48,000 asylum applications have been processed since the beginning of the year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 25, 2024.
