CIMM - Removal Orders

Key Messages

• The Canada Border Services Agency, under the purview of my colleague the Honourable Bill Blair, Minister of Public Safety, is responsible for managing and enforcing removal orders.
• Budget 2019 invests $1.18B over five years, starting in 2019-2020, and $55M per year ongoing, to enhance the integrity of Canada’s borders and asylum system.
• My Department is committed to working with the Canada Border Services Agency to assist in managing its removal programs.
• We are currently working together to improve case tracking and prioritization capabilities, which will help facilitate removals.

Supplementary Messages

Who is responsible for tracking those that need to be removed?

• Canada Border Services Agency is responsible for removing all foreign nationals under an active removal order, including failed claimants.
• IRCC processes pre-removal risk assessments applications once the Canada Border Services Agency has initiated the removal procedures, for failed claimants whose 12-month pre-removal risk assessments bar has expired.
• IRCC and CBSA are working on interoperability between respective information technology systems, and on testing some integration of functions through the Integrated Claims Assessment Centre pilot in Toronto.

Coordination among the Departments

• To increase collaboration between IRCC, Canada Border Services Agency and the Immigration and Refugee Board, the Asylum System Management Board was established in 2018 to conduct system-wide joint priority setting, trends analysis, performance management and monitoring of interdepartmental goals, and to ensure better coordination between partners involved in the asylum system.

Regarding data entry related to removals

• The Canada Border Services Agency is responsible for tracking removal orders data.
• For Federal Court decisions of failed claimants, IRCC is working with the Department of Justice to ensure that Federal Court data entry is timely and that accurate information is available in the Canada Border Services Agency removal inventory.

Supporting Facts And Figures

• The average processing time for claimants who received a pre-removal risk assessments decision between April 2019 and January 2020 is 10 months, from the time Canada Border Services Agency triggers the removal interview to the time a Canada Border Services Agency officer issues the IRCC pre-removal risk assessments decision to applicants.

Background

Pre-Removal Risk Assessment:

• Once a person is found not to be a refugee, they have 30 days to voluntarily leave Canada under a departure order. By respecting Canadian laws and leaving the country, the person can apply to return to Canada at a later time. If the person does not leave Canada within 30 days, the departure order becomes a deportation order and the Canada Border Services Agency will remove the person as soon as possible.
• Prior to the removal of a failed claimant, a pre-removal risk assessment may be offered if more than 12 months have passed since their last asylum decision. The pre-removal risk assessment evaluates the same grounds as the Immigration Refugee Board – i.e., whether a person would face persecution, torture, risk to life or risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment, if returned to his or her country of origin.
• Applicants who are excluded under the Refugee Convention for serious non-political crimes or for national security reasons may only apply for a pre-removal risk assessment based on the Convention against Torture (risk of torture, risk to life or risk of cruel or unusual treatment or punishment).
• In recognizing the validity of a decision on their claim, most individuals are barred from accessing a pre-removal risk assessment for a one-year period following the last decision on their claim (including a Federal Court decision).
• The pre-removal risk assessment is not an appeal of a negative refugee claim decision, and is restricted to new evidence which was not reasonably available at the time the claim was heard.
• However, when circumstances arise due to a change in circumstances that warrants a new risk assessment, legislation allows the Minister of IRCC to grant an exemption to the bar on access to the pre-removal risk assessment.
• Generally, if a person’s pre-removal risk assessment is approved (unless they are serious criminals), they become a protected person, who may apply for permanent residence. If a pre-removal risk assessment application is rejected, the removal order comes back into effect.

Information Sharing:

• Canada Border Services Agency is responsible for tracking removal orders data.
• IRCC inland offices do enter unenforceable removal orders into the system at the time of the making of a claim at inland offices. Canada Border Services Agency is responsible for doing the same for claims made at ports of entry. In this context, IRCC is currently working to improve its monitoring, oversight, and compliance regime, developed and implemented in response to the 2019 spring report of the Auditor General of Canada, which focused on asylum and related enforcement processes.
• The monitoring regime was launched in September 2019 and has been identifying delayed or improper data entry at intake - for corrective action on a monthly basis. Since November 2019, the related monthly asylum monitoring report also includes a section on incomplete removal orders.
• For Federal Court decisions of failed claimants, IRCC is working with the Department of Justice to ensure that Federal Court data entry is timely and that accurate information is available to the Canada Border Services Agency in their removal inventory.

Integrated Claims Analysis Centre (ICAC):

• IRCC and Canada Border Services Agency are working on interoperability between respective information technology systems, and on testing some integration of functions through the Integrated Claims Assessment Centre pilot in Toronto. This includes the setting up of a unit, part of the Integrated Claims Assessment Centre, which will track claimants as they progress throughout each steps of the asylum system.
• The aim of this unit will be to ensure that biometrics information sharing matches are received and disseminated on time to IRCC, the Canada Border Services Agency and the Immigration Refugee Board, that Canada Border Services Agency’s front-end security screening will be provided to the Immigration Refugee Board on time for hearings, to better track when appeals or judicial reviews are not filed (and removal orders come into force), and to align Canada Border Services Agency/removal efforts and IRCC/pre-removal risk assessment capacity.