Migrants who fled to Canada after Donald Trump win now stuck in legal limbo
ASYLUM seekers have overwhelmed the migration system in Canada after the election of Donald Trump prompted thousands to flee to the country, it is claimed.
Stuck in legal limbo, the families who have fled to Justin Trudeau's famously liberal nation, are struggling to get through the process, blocking them from working.
Canada is taking longer to process refugee claims than at any point in the past five years as they struggle to secure jobs and a permanent resident, reports now show.
This year is set to be the biggest year for illegal migration since 2011.
Canada's refugee system was struggling to process thousands of applications even before 3,500 asylum seekers began crossing the US border on foot in January.
It lacks the manpower to complete security screenings for claimants and hear cases in a timely manner.
Often there are not enough tribunal members to decide cases or interpreters to attend hearings, The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) said.
IRB data also showed more than 4,500 hearings scheduled in the first four months of 2017 were cancelled.
Hearings are crucial to establishing a claimant’s legal status in Canada, without it they struggle to convince employers to hire them or landlords to rent to them.
Claimants cannot access loans or student financial aid, or update academic or professional credentials to meet Canadian standards.
Canada's Government is focused on clearing a backlog of about 24,000 claimants, including people who filed claims in 2012 or earlier.
More than 15,000 people who have filed claims in 2017, including the new arrivals from the United States, will have to wait even longer for their cases to be heard.
They just said that they didn't rent places to refugee claimants. (They) said that refugees don't have jobs and probably wouldn't pay
Honduran Raul Contreras, 19, who walked across the Quebec border in March and whose hearing has been postponed indefinitely, is staying in a Government-subsidised Toronto hotel with his mother, step-father and uncle. Contreras, who spends his days at a local library or working out in the hotel gym, says he has been repeatedly rejected by landlords.
He said: "They just said that they didn't rent places to refugee claimants.
"(They) said that refugees don't have jobs and probably wouldn't pay."
Mohamed Daud, 36, left his family and a pending refugee claim in the United States and walked into Canada in February after hearing rumors of US immigration raids. Daud, originally from Somalia, had been living and working legally in Nebraska but feared he would be detained and then deported at an upcoming check-in with immigration officials.
His hearing with a Canadian refugee tribunal was canceled three days beforehand.
He said: "I don’t know when they will call me. I can’t work. It isn’t easy.”
While waiting for a work permit, he gets approximately £356 (C$600, $453) a month in government social assistance and shares a room in an apartment with six other asylum seekers.
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Border agents are working overtime to address the backlog in security screenings, said Scott Bardsley, spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, who oversees the Canada Border Services Agency.
Asylum cases are already taking longer to finalise, on average, than at any time since Canada introduced a statutory two-month time limit in 2012. This year, it has been taking 5.6 months on average, compared to 3.6 months in 2013.