Thaindian News

Toronto, March 31 (IANS) To throw out bogus refugee claimants, Canada Tuesday introduced a new bill that will usher in a new system within a year. Though Canada accepts about 260,000 new immigrants each year legally, thousands of people entering this country on tourist visas or fake papers stay back to apply for refugee status on grounds of persecution in their home countries.
Currently, more than 60,000 refugee cases are pending before the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. It takes years for each refugee case to decide. Before they are accepted or rejected, refugees live on the expense of taxpayers.

Though Canada deports thousands of failed refugee claimants each year, 15,000 people are still awaiting deportation. Another 38,000 have gone missing after losing their cases.

Introducing the new bill to fix the broken refugee system, immigration minister Jason Kenney said, “These changes would result in faster protection for those who need our help and quicker removals of those who do not.”

The new system, which would cost $600 million, will become operational in a year’s time, the minister said.

Under the new law, a refugee case will be heard within 60 days instead of 19 months now.

While it takes up to four and a half years to remove a failed case from Canada, the new law will remove failed refugee claimants within 18 months.

Canada will also prepare the list of “safe countries of origin” to quickly throw out refugees from countries where they face no human rights violations. “Our generosity is too often abused by false asylum claimants,” the minister said, referring to benefits - such as family and child welfare cheques and free medicare - pocketed by refugees.

But the bill is likely to face hurdles by two major Opposition parties as new immigrants mostly vote for them.