Inland Protection

AuthorSasha Baglay/Martin Jones
Pages273-313
273
CHAPTER 8
INLAND PROTECTION
A. INTRODUCTION
The overwhelming majority of refugees in t he world are located outside
of Canada. As we have seen in Chapter 7, some of those individuals
can receive Canada’s protection through resettlement. In addition to
resettlement, the second avenue of gaining protection is through an in-
land refugee determination system designed for those who have made
it to Canada and applied for protection from within the country. Such
claimants are subject to a complicated process of examination, which
consists of two main stages: (1) the determination of their eligibility for
a hearing before the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) of the Immigra-
tion and Refugee Board (IRB), and (2) the determination of the substan-
tive merit of their claims. This process is not designed to determine
whether an individual is generally in need of protection; rather, it is
designed to determine whether she falls within the lim ited grounds on
which Canada promise s to offer protection, namely, risk of persecution,
risk to life, and risk of torture. Canada does not accept all individuals
who claim to have fear on one of these grounds. R ather, after a process
of examination and deliberation, Canadian authorities ultimately pro-
vide protection to less than half of individuals who seek protection in
Canada.1
1 The calculation of t he exact acceptance rate is qu ite complex, as it must combine
the various acc eptance rates at the var ious levels of decision maki ng. During the
REFUGEE L AW274
In the past decade, the Canadian government has adopted policies
that make it more diff‌icult for refugee claim ants to successfully travel to
Canada and has also introduced various measures that are expected to
deter them from choosing Canada a s a destination to claim asylum. The
annual number of claims referred to the RPD has f‌luctuated, but since
2013, the number has been at its lowest in a decade: under 17,000 (for a
detailed yearly breakdown, see Appendix D, Table 1).2 In addition, the
2012 changes to the refugee determination system (particularly shorter
hearing timelines) are likely to make it more diff‌icult to succeed even
for those who managed to overcome barriers to entry.
This chapter f‌irst examines the barriers and deterrents on access to
refugee protection in Canada and then discusses the details of the refu-
gee determination process for inland claimants.
B. ACCESS TO INLAND PROTECTION
The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees imposes an explicit
obligation on states parties not to expel a refugee to a country where
he might be subject to persecution, and to guarantee certain rights to
refugees in state party territory. However, there is no corresponding
explicit obligation to admit potential refugee cl aimants who are outside
a state party’s terr itory. Due to this gap in the Re fugee Conven tion, states
have tried to limit their protection obligations by erecting barriers on
refugee claimants’ access to their territories.
1) Interdiction
The term “interdiction” refers to a variety of state measures designed
to prevent non-citizens, including asylum seekers, from entering state
territory. These measures encompass, but are not limited to, the use of
carrier sanctions, the imposition of visa requirements, and the inter-
ception of incoming vessels. Canada is not alone in pursuing interdic-
tion. Both the United States and Australia pioneered such practice in
relation to refugee claimant s in the 1980s and 1990s. Interdiction is now
practised by the European Union and most developed nations.
past decade, on aver age, only slightly over 40 percent of ref ugee claims were ac-
cepted by the RPD [acces s-to-information reque st to the RPD, on f‌ile with authors].
The acceptance rate s at other levels of decision maki ng (including through the
pre-removal risk a ssessment process) add much les s than 10 percent to this tota l.
2 Access-to-i nformation request to the IR B No A-2014-04527 [on f‌ile with authors].
Inland P rotection275
Most of Canada’s interdiction measures, except for visa requirements,
are coordinated by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and are
carried out at both Canadian ports of entry and overseas departure
points. The CBSA employs the “multiple borders strategy,” which “strives
to ‘push the border out’ so that people posing a risk to Canada’s secur-
ity and prosperity are identif‌ied as far away from the actual border as
possible, ideally before a person departs their country of origin.”3 As
the image below shows, a border is viewed “. . . not as a geo-political
line but rather a continuum of checkpoints along a route of travel from
the country of origin to Canada . . . .”4
Figure 8.1: Multiple Borders Strateg y
Source: Canad a Border Services Agenc y, Admissibil ity Screening and Support ing
Intelligence Act ivities — Evaluation Study (2009).
As part of this strategy, the CBSA’s liaison off‌icers abroad engage
in risk assessment, interdiction, information collection, and training,
working together with transportation carriers and foreign immigration
and law enforcement authorities. In addition, special agreements on
advance passenger information and other types of data sharing can
assist CBSA off‌icers in pre-departure screening. For example, in 2003,
Canada and the United States signed a Statement of Mutual Under-
standing on Information Sharing,5 which also includes an annex on
3 Canada Border Se rvices Agency, “Admissibility S creening and Supporting Int el-
ligence Activit ies — Evaluation Study” (2009).
4 Statement of Mutual Underst anding on Information Sh aring, online: ww w.cic.
gc.ca/english/department/laws-policy/smu/smu-ins-dos.asp.
5 See text of SMU, online: w ww.cic.gc.ca/engli sh/department/ laws-policy/smu/
smu-ins-dos.asp.
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