Immigration And Refugee: Asylum System

Genuine Refugees Dept: Because of our wide-open asylum system, Canada has become the country of choice for human smuggling. Anyone from any country who arrives can claim persecution and ask for refugee status. It is important to understand that these asylum seekers are not refugees -they are individuals who simply claim to be persecuted in their own country. They are then allowed entry and are permitted to work or to receive welfare, free housing, and medical and dental care while waiting to appear before the Immigration and Refugee Board to decide if they are genuine refugees in need of protection, according to Vancouver Sun. These high costs also inhibit our capacity to support the efforts of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to care for the 43.3 million real refugees in camps around the world. The UNHCR's estimated budget for 2010-2011 is $2.1 billion -less than what we spend on our annual intake of asylum seekers. Canada contributes only about $40 million to $45 million annually to the UNHCR and the announcement that the government is proposing to introduce tougher laws to combat human smuggling should be welcomed by Canadians. For the last 25 years, we have been paying a high price for our refusal to reform our dysfunctional asylum system. It is a system that is enormously expensive -some estimate it costs the taxpayer $2 billion to $3 billion a year for welfare, housing, medical care, legal fees and other services provided to the 30,000 to 40,000 asylum seekers arriving each year. This is an outrageous expenditure considering 60 per cent of the claimants are found to be bogus. As reported in the news.
@t immigration and refugee board, asylum seekers