A recent press release from Immigration Canada has drawn flak from certain sources. Canada has now repealed the program for source country. Meaning from here on they (im­migration) will not have a spe­cific list of countries where they will pick refugees from, instead in partnership with the United Nations High commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) they will pin point people who are of greatest need. “By repealing programs such as the Source Country, we can direct more resources on proven and effective resettlement pro­grams, such as our partnership with the UNHCR,” said Minister Kenney. “This will enable us to quickly offer refuge for more in­dividuals in real need of protection.” The Source Country class was intended to be a flexible tool for humanitarian intervention, capable of respond­ing to a variety of situations. The objective of the class was to pro­vide resettlement assistance to people who were in need of pro­tection, but who were unable to leave their countries and were therefore not receiving interna­tional protection under the man­date of the UNHCR.

In practice, however, the Source Country class was an in­flexible tool that did not allow the government to respond to emerg­ing situations. The class was too restrictive as it only applied to people in countries listed in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations and this list was difficult to change. As well, in some of the designated source countries, there was mini­mal uptake, while in others, the people who applied were not eli­gible or were not those for whom the program was intended.

Furthermore, overall approval rates in the program were low. In Colombia, for example, the ap­proval rate was estimated at less than 10 percent. This meant that CIC had to process nine cases before finding one that merited Canada’s protection. In contrast, by working through the UNHCR, over 85 percent of all cases are approved.

As part of the measures taken to repeal the Source Country class, Canada will also be ending direct access in the six countries where the source country pro­gram had previously operated. Direct access allows refugees in designated source countries to apply for resettlement directly to the Canadian embassy serving their area without a referral or a sponsorship. Once direct access ends, all applicants who have left their country of origin will need to include a referral from the UN­HCR, a designated referral orga­nization or a private sponsor with their resettlement application in order to be eligible for resettle­ment.

“Canada remains committed to those who need our protec­tion,” added Minister Kenney. “We are working with internation­al partners to find long-term solu­tions to a number of protracted refugee situations. For example, Canada will resettle 20,000 refu­gees from Iraq and Iran over a five-year period, many of whom were persecuted for their religious beliefs or sexual orientation. Also, as part of the measures to reform
Canada’s refugee protection sys­tem, the Government of Canada is increasing the total number of refugees resettled each year by 20 percent. This means that up to 500 more government-assist­ed refugees and 2,000 privately sponsored refugees will find pro­tection in Canada.”

As much as the new refugee law is a wel­come one, some are in protest as these law also include an addedum that says that the federal government is giving refugee claimants a maximum of 15 days to pre­pare an appeal to the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Which is actually very short compared to the 45 days they are at now. This is a time­line that most lawyers believe is already too tight. Given that refugees are detained for a total of one year without hearing or a trial. The 15 days to prepare their appeal is tantamount to saying “ Hey, we don’t really want you here"

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