There are fears that some outstanding cases might be left behind because of the influx of new claimants.
The Friendly Manitoba has spread red carpet and extended open arms to the more than 200 refugees who traveled fearlessly in a subzero temperature just to reach Emerson, an entry town within the USA and Canada border.
Since January 2017, the officials of Emerson, the provincial government and various NGOs have been overwhelmed by the surging tide of refugee claimants, mostly from African countries, who either rejected and have been waiting for their refugee claims in the United States.They came in droves knowing that Canada is more relax on the refugee claimants, as compared with what President Donald Trump’s action against the illegal and undocumented aliens in the United States.
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau advocates with an open policy to all immigrants and refugees, the would-be refugees are heading to Canada, via countless sea voyages, landing at South America, and entering the United States, and taking a cab to the Canadian borders for the quest of freedom and a good life.
Behind this curtain of acceptance, there are voices from some quarters about the emergence of many refugee claimants, addressing the financial drain of the federal and provincial government; and the demand of services from many volunteer organizations; and from some critics who claimed that the Refugee board is swamped with the growing number of asylum claims, according to the Canadian Press, there are 30,000 claims this year, triple the number recorded for the past four years.
“There is a limit to what you can do..”said board chairman Mario Dion, as reported by the Canadian Press as printed by Winnipeg Free Press. And he added: “Efficiency has increased significantly, but there is no way we can deal with 30,000 cases when we’re funded for about 17,000.”
And from Ottawa, MP Ted Falk (Provencher), as reported by Canadian Press, in his video saying the migrants take advantage of Canada’s generosity and exploit the loopholes. And during the question period, he added asylum seekers who walk across the border are “jumping the queue.”. And from some critics, because of the backlog, new claimants might be given priority leaving those who have been waiting for hearing might be set aside on the later date.
As reported, the chance of asylum seekers in the United States is only 10% while in Canada, has a whopping 65% approval rate. So chances to be approved are possible.
And currently, Public Safety Minister Ralph, as reported by the Free Press, said that crossing the border illegally is not a “free ticket” into Canada. And he continued it might be a long term pass for those coming from a number of war-torn countries like Somalia.
And most of the asylum seekers are coming from Somalia, and because of our welcoming nature, most asylum seekers choose Canada as their refuge. And so what is the conclusion?
Canada is under populated and its vastness of its space from coast to coast, then Canada needs more people.