Former refugee believes she wouldn’t have been able to stay with proposed border bill

OTTAWA — A trans woman does not believe she would have been able to stay in Canada if the refugee rules outlined in the government’s new border bill were in effect.

Asya Medea came to Canada in 2018 on a student visa to begin a PhD in gender, sexuality and women’s studies at Toronto’s York University. Due to a combination of worsening health conditions and growing danger for LGBTQ+ people in Turkey, Medea filed a refugee claim about 18 months after arriving.

“Turkey had become increasingly transphobic and the regulations in Turkey had begun specifically and personally targeting people, including me. So back in that time, I didn’t have any other option,” Medea said.

“So my conditions and the conditions in Turkey, made me a refugee.”

Medea said her refugee application was approved in 2020 and she now has permanent residency.

Bill C-12 will bar the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada from hearing refugee claims from individuals who have been in Canada for more than a year. This one-year period is retroactive to June 24, 2020.

An immigration official told the House of Commons immigration committee Thursday that June 24, 2020 is the date Canada’s entry and exit system came online, so it’s the beginning of concrete data showing how long someone has been in the country.

Immigration Minister Lena Diab has said people who’ve been in Canada for more than a year and are looking to make a refugee claim could still request a pre-removal risk assessment.

Evidence presented at an immigration hearing in 2022 suggests only about six per cent those assessments result in permission to stay in Canada.

Bloc Québécois MP Claude DeBellefeuille said in French during Thursday’s committee she is concerned the pre-removal risk assessment would be the only option for some refugee claimants due to the low approval rate.

DeBellefeuille asked the immigration minister what happens if someone had been in Canada for longer than a year and circumstances in their home country changed. Diab responded in French that they would still go through a pre-removal risk assessment.

Jason Hollmann, direct general of asylum policy, said during Thursday’s committee that the pre-removal risk assessment has the same criteria as examinations made at the Immigration and Refugee Board. Normally, the pre-removal risk assessment is conducted for applications that were rejected by the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Medea runs a non-profit called LuBunTO that helps LGBTQ+ newcomers. She said she’s heard from several people that had been in Canada for longer than a year and applied for refugee status after June 24, 2020 and now don’t know if they will be able to stay.

She said there is much shock and confusion around how the bill will affect cases that are already awaiting approval.

Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, said the one-year restriction on having an refugee appeal go to the Immigration and Refugee Board is not a realistic time frame.

“The refugee system is designed to ensure protection from things like war. Well, war does not follow a calendar,” he said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

“So picking an arbitrary date, 365 days, after that you were no longer refugee, that doesn’t apply to the world where things change so quickly. We have all seen wars and climate catastrophe and economic changes and changes of government and global pandemics happen very, very quickly.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2025.