Miller to propose more changes to immigration and asylum system
Immigration Minister Marc Miller has announced that further reforms to Canada’s immigration and asylum systems will be proposed in the coming weeks. This comes after the federal government made a significant cut to the targeted number of permanent residents to be admitted to Canada in the next two years, and tightened the rules on temporary worker permits.
Statistics provided by Canadian officials show that the average wait time to process refugee and asylum claims is around 44 months. Miller addressed this issue at the House of Commons immigration committee, stating that the current asylum and refugee system is not working efficiently due to volume and inefficiency.
“I want to reform the system,” Miller said. “The growing claims that we see now, inland, are not unexpected. They’re ones that we saw with people having increasingly fewer hopes to stay in Canada, and being counselled to file, I think unjustly, asylum claims where they shouldn’t have the ability to do so.”
Inland asylum claims are those made outside of regular ports of entry, and individuals must have been in Canada for at least two weeks before making such a claim. Government data shows that 635 of these claims were processed between January and September this year.
Miller also highlighted the increasing number of people on student visas filing asylum claims, which has raised concerns within the immigration system.
During Miller’s testimony at the committee, protesters held up signs expressing their opposition to deportation and calling for equal rights for all individuals. One protester from the group Migrant Workers Alliance for Change directly addressed the minister, stating, “we are the people you’re trying to kick out of this country.”
In response to calls to reverse recent immigration changes, Miller emphasized that becoming a Canadian citizen is not a right. He stated, “It is not a right to become a permanent resident. It is not a right to become a Canadian citizen, otherwise you dilute the value of it. That’s something I firmly believe in.”
Despite this, Miller acknowledged the importance of treating people fairly and respecting visa agreements. He mentioned that there are nuances to the issue, which is why there is a target to draw 40 percent of new permanent residents from people already in Canada.
As of September, nearly 250,000 refugee claims were pending decisions, and 48,000 asylum claims have been processed since the beginning of the year. The proposed reforms aim to streamline the immigration and asylum systems to address these challenges and ensure fairness for all individuals seeking refuge in Canada.
