Osgoode Hall Law School Western University and Refugee Determination

refugee determination: The authors say racist stereotypes about the Roma have become enshrined in the refugee determination process, according to The Waterloo Record. Researchers from Osgoode Hall Law School and Western University reviewed Immigration and Refugee Board decisions on 11,333 Hungarian refugees — a group highlighted by Ottawa for abuse of the system and as a cause for reforms — between 2008 and 2012, broken down by adjudicators and lawyers representing the claimants. That the conclusion of a new study that identifies institutional bias in Canada asylum system against members of the often-persecuted minority and finds the result of Roma refugee claims amounts to the luck of the draw. It found: • Roma made up 85 per cent of all Hungarian refugees, the rest from other ethnicities. • Only 660, or 18.1 per cent, of the claims were granted, compared with 54,290, or 47.2 per cent, from all countries. • Among refugee judges who had handled 20 or more Hungarian cases during the period, acceptance rates ranged from 77.8 per cent to zero. • Three Toronto-area lawyers represented 1,139 Hungarian cases, accounting for more than a third of the total cases in the five years. • Lawyers who represented 25 or more Hungarian cases had success rates ranging broadly, from 1.1 per cent to 30.6 per cent. While hundreds succeeded with their refugee claims, most did not. The combination of significantly below-average success rates and very high volumes of cases is identified as a concern. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.