Immigration Canada released statistics on health care spending for refugee claimants yesterday to bolster its case that the recent scaling back of free health care for those awaiting refugee decisions was necessary. The statistics show that refugee claimants from Mexico, Hungary, Colombia, the United States and Jamaica, all countries that do not have a record of human rights abuse and […]
Read moreImmigration Minister Jason Kenney last week introduced legislation to speed up the deportation of foreign criminals from Canada. Under current laws, some refugee claimants who have been convicted of crimes have been able to delay their deportation for years through repeated appeals of removal orders, while receiving welfare and other government benefits during their time in Canada. The new legislation, […]
Read moreHealth workers groups held several rallies across Canadian cities yesterday to protest government cuts to health care programs for refugees. As part of its deficit reduction program, the federal government is cutting medical services provided at no cost to refugees through the Interim Federal Health Program, limiting free services to emergency health care and treatment of chronic conditions that pose a public […]
Read moreThe Immigration Ministry will create a list of ‘safe’ European countries with independent judiciaries and a demonstrated commitment to international human rights agreements, where residents are unlikely to be facing persecution, and expedite deportations of asylum seekers originating from them. The move is a response to a large scale wave of Roma asylum seekers that have recently been arriving in […]
Read moreCanadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has proposed a new bill “Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act”, that would toughen rules for asylum seekers coming to Canada. The new bill would reduce the time taken to assess a standard refugee application from 1000 to 45 days. This would reduce the incidence of immigration authorities being unsuccessful in deporting asylum seekers applying under false […]
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