Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think that part of the answer to your question is contained in the question itself. There is certainly an issue with regard to migration to Canada. Perhaps some of the systems that Canada has produced relating to those issues would help to address some of the concerns of the Ca

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Certainly. If you look at the IRB, they agree with you, because approximately 11% of Mexicans were recognized last year--

Citizenship and Immigration committee  So clearly there are some issues in relation to drug gangs, or maras.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think Mr. Abraham, in his opening statement, as well as my response to Madam Chow, indicated that we would prefer to see that there is an appeal available to all asylum seekers in Canada. The purpose of an appeal would be to correct mistakes made in the first instance. Under

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Again, these are not matters that are contained in the bill. It's hard to comment on them, since they're not the bill. One of the issues we see regularly is that there are quite substantial changes in countries of origin that are very quick. They create what we refer to as “ref

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'd be happy to answer that question. I think we're talking, to a certain extent, to cross-purposes. You're currently talking about classes of people and a positive bias in favour of human rights protections for certain groups of people. Our concern is more on geographic territo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I believe that in your national legislation you're trying to link two ideas that are not necessarily linked in the convention. We do support the efficacy of procedures. We do support the use of, for instance, safe country lists—or we don't contradict it. Many states have decided

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, madam. I think we've been quite clear on that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The answer is yes, we are engaged. It's more a question of how we're engaged. To use an example, in the Canadian context, with regard to your temporary suspension of removals list, every time a country comes up for renewal in your examination of whether it should be retained on t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think UNHCR has been quite clear that we believe that all refugees should have access to an appeal on the merits, both as to law and fact. That basically stems from Canada's convention obligations, which include reference to the non-discrimination clauses in the 1951 convention

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, members. It is very difficult to answer a question like that until we understand more clearly what would be entailed in the collection of information during those eight days. The UNHCR conducts refugee status determination in 50 countries wo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Undoubtedly. Undoubtedly, some people who have been traumatized are never able to articulate effectively, either because of mental health problems or because the traumatic experience was so difficult they don't want to talk to people about it. A classic example would be the rap

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'd like to follow up on that briefly, sir. There's been a lot of discussion around the table and a lot of very pointed questions about what should Canada do and how much should we give, either economically or in terms of numbers. In both those cases in terms of our financing,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, sir. Coming on their own, 293 people spontaneously arrived at your airports or borders. The other numbers relate to resettlement numbers.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The 293 number is individuals who have arrived at the borders of Canada or an airport and claimed asylum in Canada.