Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and honourable members. Thank you for inviting us to come before this committee once again.
Let me put things in the perspective of the UN refugee agency, which has a global mandate. Last year we saw 25 million refugees. It's an increase, compared to 2016, of close to three million refugees. It's the largest increase that we have witnessed globally in a year's time. On top of that we have 4.4 million asylum seekers whose cases are still pending.
It will come as no surprise to the honourable members that if we have an increase of three million people recognized as refugees, Canada will have a fair number of those people coming to the territory. If you look at the number, the 50,000 asylum seekers, let's say that if the IRB were to recognize all of them—and it's the prerogative of the IRB to decide who is a refugee or not—of the 29.4 million, those 50,000 mean that less than 0.2% have come to Canada. I think it's important to put this in perspective.
The second point is that if we look at the countries, indeed we have a number of people coming from situations of extreme violence, such as those in Somalia, Syria, Yemen, and Palestine. I'm sure that all Canadians are very proud to be offering protection to those families. In addition, we have countries like Nigeria and Haiti, the two main countries from which irregular arrivals are arriving. We know that in those countries a number of profiles, such as the LGBTQ community, victims of sexual violence or domestic violence, or little girls at risk of female genital mutilation or cutting or of child marriage, may be in need of Canada's protection. Again, I'm sure that everybody in this room is proud that Canada offers this protection to those families.
A lot of discussion has been going on about the numbers and predictions of numbers for the remainder of the year or for five years' time. UNHCR will caution against those kinds of approaches. It's extremely difficult to predict, as was said earlier on. We have seen a large decrease, in May and June, of people arriving in Canada through irregular crossings. If I am correct, as we stand now in July we have an average of 40 to 45 persons crossing irregularly at Roxham Road, which is half of what was happening in July last year. I think nobody could have predicted that. We had heard, on the contrary, people crying wolf, indicating that we would be seeing a large increase. That's not what is happening, and therefore it's very difficult to predict those movements.
I would like to make a point about the fact that it has often been described as people coming from the U.S., United States long-timers, who are coming to Canada. Actually, for the last 18 months we have observed that a number of people actually use the United States only as transit. They claim or they report that it was easier for them to get an American visa than a Canadian visa but that their intention was to come to Canada.
Here I need to stop and say that there's no obligation, under international law, for people to claim asylum in the first country where they arrive and where they can find safety. However, UNHCR encourages countries to come together and have agreements to manage their borders as efficiently as possible. In this respect, I have had the opportunity to brief this committee in the past. UNHCR has been observing the situation at Lacolle, at Roxham Road, but also in Manitoba and in British Columbia, where people are arriving through irregular means. I must say that we have seen not only an efficient processing of those persons by RCMP, CBSA, and later on IRCC and IRB, but one with a lot of humanity and respect for the dignity of those people. I'd say again that Canadians must be proud of what has been achieved by all those institutions over the last 18 months.
I would like to turn to the issue of language. I think it's very important that we keep using the correct terminology, because a number of words that have been used in this room and elsewhere tend to dehumanize the people who arrive by irregular means.
As was mentioned several times, people cannot be qualified as illegals. They are irregular arrivals. They enter irregularly, but there is nothing illegal when you cross an international border to claim asylum. IRPA is very clear on the fact that it is applicable also to people who transit through another country.
It is also important to maintain the fact that the Immigration and Refugee Board is the only competent body. It is an independent quasi tribunal that will decide whether people are entitled to the protection of Canada as refugees or not, and therefore it is dangerous to qualify those people as making an eventual bogus claim. Those people all come with different stories and choose Canada for different reasons, including sometimes a family connection or cultural and linguistic affinities. All of those reasons are difficult to ascertain because every single case is different. One needs to repeat here that it is never an easy choice for people to leave their home and cross several seas, continents, and countries to claim asylum in another country.
I would really like to stress that we hope that the populist rhetoric that seeks to gain short-term voting support will not bias the discourse and the discussions that we have about people who are irregular arrivals and are entitled to the protection of Canada, pending determination of their cases by the Immigration and Refugee Board.
The last point I would like to make is that we know that a number of them are rapidly becoming economically self-reliant. We know that it takes an average of three weeks for people to get a work permit. We know from anecdotal evidence that in Quebec, for example, 50% of them have a job and therefore are not using the social subsidies of the state. They earn their bread and butter for themselves and their families on their own. We know that a number of them are educated and will find a job. We also know that the capacity of shelters to accommodate them was not overwhelmed by the arrival of those numbers. This predates the crisis, and it is extremely important that we not scapegoat refugees and asylum seekers for issues that predate and are related to other factors than their arrival in the country.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.