More than 32,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Canada so far this year, and roughly 80 staff from the immigration department have been reassigned to help with the influx of irregular border crossers in Quebec, a joint House of Commons committee heard Thursday. Between January and August, 13,211 asylum seekers have entered Canada through irregular border crossings, the vast majority in Quebec. The 32,000 total asylum seekers who have arrived in Canada this year represent “a fairly significant increase” over last year, when the total for the year was just under 24,000, MacDonald said. Hussen said the government has made a “huge dent” in the backlog of asylum seekers waiting for eligibility interviews, the first step in the process before a refugee hearing can be scheduled. The officials were also unable to say how much the additional resources deployed to process irregular border crossers have cost.

Source: National Post September 29, 2017 00:11 UTC