The
IRB acknowledges the publication of the final report of the independent review of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada led by Neil Yeates. The report makes three overarching findings:
- Organizations involved in the delivery of the refugee determination system need more integrated planning and coordination from the time the refugee protection claim is first made to the point at which accepted claimants are landed and those rejected are removed from Canada.
- The system needs significant changes in order to be as effective as possible.
- The system’s capacity needs to be increased, at least on an interim basis, including an aggressive approach to eliminate the existing backlog of refugee protection claims.
The report makes a number of recommendations on how to improve the management and productivity of the
IRB and the refugee protection system as a whole.
In fact, the
IRB had already begun to implement new processes that are in line with some of these recommendations as outlined in the former Chairperson’s 2017
Plan of Action for Efficient Refugee Determination, before this report was commissioned. These improvements have contributed to the increase in the processing of refugee protection claims—to approximately 40% more in 2017–18 as compared to 2016–17.
Until the federal government makes a decision on which recommendations to move forward with, the
IRB will continue to focus on fair and quality decision-making while maximizing the efficiency of its operations.
The report is available on the
IRCC website.
Paul Aterman
A/Chairperson
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada