Backlog of ‘legacy’ refugee claims in Canada soon to be cleared, minister says

OTTAWA – Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen says a backlog of “legacy” claims filed by refugee applicants to Canada who have been waiting over seven years for hearings will soon be cleared.

Hussen says only a handful of claims remain from a backlog of that once stood at 32,000, thanks to efforts of a special task force struck to deal specifically with so-called legacy cases.

The backlog was created in December 2012, when the Conservative government of the day set new deadlines for refugee hearings.

The new rules said refugee hearings had to happen within 60 days.

Officials at the arms-length agency that processes asylum cases struggled to meet that deadline for new claimants, so the 32,000 cases already in the system at the time were bumped to a lower-priority queue for scheduled hearings.

That left thousands of asylum-seekers in limbo — on a list government will finally clear by the end of July.