Thank you, Mr. McCallum, and good afternoon to everyone.
I'm the former chairperson of the Immigration and Refugee Board and for the past 10 years I've been teaching refugee law at the University of Ottawa, but today I'm here as a spokesperson for the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers.
We have provided you with a written brief that sets out the reasons why refugee claimants must continue to receive social assistance. Accordingly, CARL is asking you to either reject the amendments or amend them in such a way that refugee claimants and refugees continue to receive social assistance all across Canada.
In the short time available I'll address six issues very quickly. The first one is, and I hope this is clear, that the bill will allow provinces to deny social assistance to refugees. The wording of the bill only identifies certain groups, mainly citizens and permanent residents, who cannot be excluded from social assistance. The amendment allows provinces to deny benefits to refugee claimants and refugees, and refugees will be caught by any residency period eligibility because their eligibility for social assistance begins at the time they make their refugee claim. So the most vulnerable period is exactly that first part of their claim, which is important.
And to make it clear, that's what's going on with the refugee process. There is not a distinction in terms of social assistance between refugee claimants and refugees. That has sometimes been discussed, but there's not, because when they make their claim that's what's going on with the refugee claim process. They're trying to decide whether or not they are refugees.
At the first stage of that process before the refugee protection division, approximately 50% of those claimants will be accepted as refugees. That's important to remember.
Secondly, even those who are refused by the first level then have the opportunity to either seek an appeal before the refugee appeal division of the IRB or to seek judicial review.
I can tell you that statistically—and the statistics are very complicated, and if you want to ask a question I'll go through them all—you can accept as a fair and rough approximation that approximately 60% of those refugee claimants will ultimately be accepted as refugees. I'm making that point so when right at the start if you think you're only denying social assistance to claimants, 60% of those people will be eventually accepted as refugees. So that's I think the first important point to be made.
In terms of the timing, we don't know what the eligibility period will be. It could be different from different provinces, but essentially the first stage of the process is approximately four months and after that for claimants who are in the appeal or judicial review process it could be approximately another nine months before they're ultimately either accepted or refused.
It is important to remember that only 3% of refugees are actually found to have no credible basis to their claim, and that is really the measure of the number of—and I don't like to use the word “bogus” refugees—fraudulent refugees. We're only talking about 3%.
The reason I point this out is that it means that for that other group who are refused as refugees, even if they're not accepted as refugees it does not mean they did not claim in good faith. It means that we know that the majority of them are refused for technical reasons, even if they're ultimately sent back. They actually applied in good faith. They're here legally in Canada and they also are entitled to be receiving social assistance through the claim process, up to the point where they're either accepted or they're denied, they're removed, and then of course at that point they no longer need social assistance.
In terms of why refugees should require social assistance, the desperate need of most refugee claimants when they arrive should be obvious to everybody here. And I'm sure my colleague, Ms. Loly Rico, will be saying even more so. Most are without means. Some have means. We're only discussing refugees without means, but that is the majority of claimants.
It's important to understand that they do not have the right to work. Many refugees would love to work. Some can apply in the beginning, but it takes at least three months before they receive work permits, and if they are in special categories, it will take six months. We're talking about people who, if they don't receive social assistance, have no other means of support.
In addition, even among those who can work, several categories are unemployable: children, the elderly, and claimants who are psychologically or physically injured, including as a result of the persecution they suffered or the long flight they took to Canada. Remember, for some refugees it takes two, three, four, or five years for them to actually arrive in Canada. For the same reason, I would say that many refugees—and this should be obvious to everyone—are vulnerable people; that is the nature of refugees.
One of the reasons CARL is here today is that we know our claimants. We know the ways in which they are so vulnerable: sometimes they don't speak English or French; they aren't acculturated to Canada; and often there is tremendous fear and tremendous confusion because, especially in those first two, three, four, or five months—and that's the period of time we're talking about—they're being denied social assistance. That's important to understand.
The next point, which I think is also quite important, is that without means of support, it will be almost impossible for a refugee claimant to prove their claim. You may ask why that would be. First of all, not all refugees get legal aid. Approximately 70% to 75% do, but it doesn't matter whether they get legal aid or not, because there are a lot of costs related to a refugee claim that are not covered by legal aid. For example, there is tremendous difficulty getting documentation from their home countries. There are copy costs. You say, well, copy costs—what is that? Copy costs can be a couple of hundred dollars. There are interpreter costs and translator costs that are not covered by the government. There are transportation costs. If you are completely indigent, how do you, along with your two kids, visit the lawyer's office five times and then get to the board?
If a person is really without any means, they would not be able to effectively actually prove their claim, and of course that undermines the fairness of our entire refugee system.
It's a bad idea.
In my legal brief, I go into some detail around the legal responsibilities Canada, as a host country, has to refugees. I won't go into details here other than to say that there are both national and international obligations. They're set out in the brief; however, constitutionally the federal government has responsibility for refugees under section 91(25) of the the Constitution Act. The primary responsibility is that of the government.
Although I can't quote all of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to you, I do want to quote one paragraph from the objectives, which is this:
3(2)(a)...the refugee program is in the first instance about saving lives and offering protection to the displaced and persecuted.
That is a primary objective and the responsibility of the federal government. I could ask, just the way the act reads and setting aside the legal terminology, in what sense you think that denial of food, shelter, medical care, and basic necessities would be about saving lives and offering protection.
There are two more things I want to tell you. The first is in terms of comparison. I've been in front of this committee frequently. Whenever Mr. Kenney introduced changes to the refugee system, he often referred to other developed countries and their systems. In particular, the principal countries for comparison were the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. All three of those countries, as well as Germany, provide social assistance. We only had time to research thoroughly four countries. All of them provide housing, shelter, food, medical care, and basic necessities. They do it in different ways. Some provide housing, but all of them do that. None of them leave refugees destitute. If you'd like, I could provide you with a chart that has more details.
The last thing I want to say—