Extra Individuals utilized for refugee standing in Canada within the first half of 2025 than in all of 2024, and greater than in any full yr since 2019, in keeping with information printed on Thursday by Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board.
Their share of whole refugee claims – 245 of about 55,000 – is small and Canada’s acceptance of U.S. refugee claims has traditionally been low. Asylum-seekers from different nations crossing the land border from the U.S. are despatched again below a bilateral settlement with the reasoning that they need to apply for asylum within the first “protected” nation they arrived in.
Final yr 204 individuals filed refugee claims in Canada with the USA as their nation of alleged persecution. Claims from the U.S. additionally rose throughout the first Trump administration.
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The info doesn’t say why the claims had been made. Eight legal professionals informed Reuters they’re listening to from extra trans Individuals wanting to depart. Reuters spoke with a trans girl from Arizona who got here to Canada in April to file a declare, and to a girl who got here to file a declare on behalf of her younger trans daughter.
U.S. President Donald Trump and the U.S. Supreme Court docket have rolled again trans rights, proscribing who can entry gender-affirming care, who can serve within the navy, who can use what lavatory and who can play in some sports activities.
To realize asylum, refugees should persuade Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board that nowhere within the U.S. is protected for them.
The Board lately added paperwork from teams similar to Human Rights Watch analyzing the U.S.’s therapy of LGBTQ individuals to its nationwide documentation package deal detailing nation circumstances.
A U.S. Division of Homeland Safety spokesperson mentioned individuals claiming refugee standing in Canada would create room for people “dealing with precise worry and persecution.”
