Canada approved 25,000 asylum claims without security checks or in-person meetings
India Today
Immigration authorities in Canada gave thousands of applicants asylum status without sufficient security checks or a single in-person interview. A report by a former senior immigration official has claimed immigrants from 24 high-risk countries were given streamlined asylum status, exposing Canada to security risks and immigration fraud.
Canada has approved nearly 25,000 asylum claims without security checks or conducting in-person interviews with applicants between 2019 and 2023, according to a report by the Toronto-based CD Howe Institute.
The report, authored by former Canadian senior immigration official, James Yousif, noted that the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) approved at least 24,599 asylum claims without meeting the applicants once, abandoning checks and procedures meant to detect fraud, criminality and security risks of applicants.
According to the report, the IRB streamlined vital security checks and replaced in-person hearings with automated file-assessments to fast track applicants from 24 "high-risk countries" — including Pakistan, Sudan and Russia — due to a severe backlog of pending asylum applications as well as a historic high in illegal border crossings and refugee claims.
The report said it made Canada's asylum system one of the world's most permissive but significantly more vulnerable to abuse and fraud.
Reacting to the report, Canadian immigration consultant, Kanwar Singh Sierah, said on X, "It's not just 25,000 people... Canada's asylum system has been hijacked by criminals and terror-linked elements as the easiest pathway to settle abroad for years."
"These are only the cases caught being not interviewed and rubber-stamped... Now imagine the scale of approvals driven by politics, lobbying, and community pressure," Kanwar Singh Sierah added in his post.
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