Canada Flags 30,000 Refugees

Canada has started sending letters to about 30,000 refugee claimants saying their cases may never reach a hearing, and some letters tell people they must leave Canada immediately if no legal barrier stops their removal. The letters come from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the department that screens claims before they ever reach the tribunal that decides asylum cases. (cbc.ca) That first screen is the choke point. An official from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada or the Canada Border Services Agency decides whether a claim is eligible to be referred to the Refugee Protection Division, which is the branch of the Immigration and Refugee Board that holds asylum hearings. (canada.ca, irb-cisr.gc.ca) The legal change behind this is Bill C-12, which became law on March 26, 2026. The government says the new measures are meant to tighten the asylum system and modernize how claims are received, processed, and decided. (canada.ca) One of the key rules is a one-year clock. A letter obtained by CBC says one claimant entered Canada in 2024 and applied more than a year later, which is why the department warned the person the claim may be ineligible for referral to a hearing. (cbc.ca, ca.news.yahoo.com) Another rule targets people who already asked for refugee protection somewhere else before applying in Canada. Section 101 of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act says a claim is ineligible if the person previously made a refugee claim in another country and that earlier claim is confirmed through an information-sharing agreement. (laws-lois.justice.gc.ca) That matters because ineligibility is not the same thing as losing at a hearing. If a claim is ruled ineligible, the person can be blocked from the Refugee Protection Division entirely, which means the independent board never hears the full case in the ordinary asylum process. (laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, irb-cisr.gc.ca) Canada already had a separate border rule with the United States called the Safe Third Country Agreement. Under that agreement, the United States is the only country Canada currently designates as a “safe third country,” and many people who try to make a refugee claim at an official land border crossing from the United States are turned back unless they fit an exception. (canada.ca) The new letters land in a system that was already overloaded. The Immigration and Refugee Board said its 2025–2026 funding would let it process up to 85,000 refugee claims, while the board’s own planning documents said referrals had grown faster than the number of claims it was funded to decide. (canada.ca, irb-cisr.gc.ca) Government briefing material from October 2025 said the point of these ineligibility measures was to protect the “integrity” and “efficiency” of the asylum system during sudden increases in claims. The same material said people found ineligible would still have access to a pre-removal risk assessment, which is a narrower last-minute review of danger before deportation. (canada.ca) So the practical change is simple and harsh: thousands of people who thought they were waiting in line for a hearing are being told they may be outside the line altogether. The fight now shifts from proving a refugee case before the Immigration and Refugee Board to arguing, often urgently, that the government should not have blocked the case from reaching that board in the first place. (cbc.ca, theglobeandmail.com)