By Canadian Press

Canada’s asylum system unable to respond to spikes in claims, AG finds

May 7, 2019 | 7:23 AM

OTTAWA — Acting auditor general Sylvain Ricard has found Canada’s refugee system is plagued with a backlog of asylum claims that is worse now than it has ever been, caused in part by systemic inefficiencies.

As part of five performance audits of government activities, the auditor looked at how quickly and efficiently the three government agencies involved in reviewing and processing refugee claims are doing their work.

The audit found Canada’s refugee system is not able to respond quickly to surges in asylum claims — which has led to a two-year backlog.

An influx of asylum seekers to Canada that began in early 2017, including over 42,000 “irregular” migrants who have entered Canada through non-official border checkpoints, has outstripped the government’s ability to process them in a timely way.

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With the current backlog of over 75,000 claims, asylum seekers could wait up to five years to learn whether they can remain in Canada if improvements are not made.

The auditor general points to several key internal problems that have added unnecessary delays, including duplicated work, a heavy reliance on paper files and three different computer systems that don’t work well together.

The Canadian Press