Bill C-12 limits how and when refugee claimants can apply for asylum, aiming to reduce backlogs and deter misuse. The law bars people who came to Canada more than a year earlier from filing claims with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. It is retroactive to those arriving or visiting after June 24, 2020, and applies to claims made on or after June 3, 2025. After royal assent in late March, letters were sent to about 30,000 applicants warning they may be ineligible for refugee hearings. Toronto lawyers report clients from countries facing persecution and vulnerable groups receiving these letters and becoming anxious. Lawyers are now advising clients on alternatives, including pre-removal risk assessments, which are paper-based, offer fewer protections, and historically have lower success rates.
"Nearly two months after the Canadian government passed a new law limiting how and when refugee claimants can apply for asylum, some Toronto lawyers say they're seeing the results in their offices and mobilizing to challenge the law in federal court. We've been seeing a ton of now-ineligible refugee claimants come to our centre seeking help, said Joshua Eisen, in-house lawyer at the FCJ Refugee Centre in Toronto. People are very panicked, very, very anxious."
"The Liberal government has framed Bill C-12 as a way to reduce the backlog of claims, and deter people from misusing the asylum system. It stops those who came to Canada more than a year earlier from filing claims with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. The law is retroactive to those arriving or visiting after June 24, 2020, and applies to claims made on or after June 3, 2025."
"After the bill received royal assent in late March, a wave of letters went out to about 30,000 applicants across the country, telling them they may be ineligible for refugee hearings because of their application timeline. Some of those people have found their way to Toronto immigration lawyer Ravi Jain, who says he's seen a number of clients from countries where they may face persecution, like Iran, or who come from vulnerable groups like LGBTQ+ community. We have clients right now that have pending refugee claims and they've been given letters saying they are not eligible. So they're panicking, he said."
"For lawyers like Jain and Eisen, the next task is to brief clients no longer eligible for a refugee hearing on their options. In some cases, that means preparing for a pre-removal risk assessment (PRRA) a paper-based process handled by immigration officers available to some claimants. It's different from a refugee claim, explained Eisen. There are fewer procedural protections and the chance of success is, at least historically, much lower. But it is the way of potentially being ab"
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