CIMM – Overview of Irregular Migrants and the Pre-removal Risk Assessment– November 18, 2022

Key Messages

The Pre-removal Risk Assessment (PRRA) is a program which ensures that persons facing removal are not returned to a country where they would be at risk.
Since April 1, 2017, 254 irregular migrants (including 188 in the province of Quebec) have obtained protection from Canada as a result of a positive risk assessment conducted as part of their removal process.

The reason for assessing risk prior to removal is found in Canada’s domestic and international commitments to the principle of non-refoulement. This principle holds that persons should not be removed from Canada to a country where they would be at risk of persecution, torture, risk to life or risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.
PRRA has the same protection objectives as the refugee determination process and is conducted by an independent decision maker at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) who is trained and specialized in assessing risk.

A person such as an irregular migrant who makes an asylum claim that is determined to be ineligible to be referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB), or is referred but then rejected, is then referred to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) for removal.
As part of the removal process, a CBSA removals officer determines who is entitled to apply for a PRRA.
Of those who are entitled to a PRRA and apply, the approval rate in the last five fiscal years is on average:
- 6%^{Footnote 1} for those whose previous asylum claim was referred to the IRB and then rejected; meaning that IRCC decision makers come to the same conclusion as the IRB on average 94% of the time.
- 33%^{Footnote 2} for those whose previous asylum claim was determined to be ineligible to be referred to the IRB, meaning their risk allegations had not been assessed until the PRRA.

Some persons cannot be removed because they are subject to:
- A temporary suspension of removals (currently in place for: Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Iraq), or
- An administrative deferral of removals (currently in place for: certain regions in Somalia, the Gaza Strip, Ukraine, Syria, Mali, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Burundi, Venezuela, and Haiti).
Most persons who have not had their asylum claim referred to the IRB (e.g., because their claim was determined to be ineligible) are entitled to apply for a PRRA.
Most persons whose asylum claim was referred to the IRB and then rejected are not entitled to a PRRA unless 12 months have passed since their claim was rejected and they have not yet been removed.
The Minister may make exemptions under subsection A112(2.1) from the 12-month bar nationals or former habitual residents of a country where conditions have changed such that certain people could be subject to a risk within the meaning of sections A96 and A97.
On average, since 2018 14% of persons in the removal stream who are entitled to a PRRA and made a previous asylum claim do not apply for a PRRA.