June 21, 2012

Refugee Protection Claims Referred for 2011-2012

Since 2009 there has been an increase in refugee cases from Hungary, ballooning from 288 in 2008 to 4,423 in 2011. Hungary was the main source country for claims (1,775 principal files) for the fiscal year 2011-2012, followed closely by China (1,530 principal files).

China remains the second top source country for the past fiscal year with 1,849 referrals. This annual number has remained relatively stable since 2005-2006.

The third top source country during the last fiscal year was Pakistan with 875 referrals and it ranked sixth during the last quarter. Although the relative share of new Pakistani claims fell in the past few years, it has always been a significant source of claims. There have been noted increases again since the fall of 2010 and the country is once again becoming a source country. It ranked fourth in principal claims with 565 in 2011-2012.

Colombia is another source country which remains significant, coming in as the fourth during fiscal year 2011-2012. The number of new claims has fallen in recent quarters with just under 160 referrals in the final quarter of fiscal year 2011-2012, Colombia was the ninth top source country for that quarter.

Nigeria, Mexico and India come in at fifth, sixth and seventh respectively for fiscal year 2011-2012. Mexico in particular, has seen a decline in claims. The number of claims which was at nearly 10,000 in 2009 continues to fall thereby relegating it to sixth this fiscal year.

The Czech Republic used to be one of the main source countries in 2009-2010 which 2,200 referrals but this number has since plummeted to less than 50 in 2011-2012.

The Slovak Republic has emerged in 2011-2012 with 618 referrals thereby making it the eight top source country for the fiscal year. Referrals have jumped from 60 in 2008 to nearly 300 in the previous two years.

The RPD also began receiving a wave of claims from Namibia in fall 2010 which had not happened in 23 years. In the first two quarters of fiscal year 2011-2012, 450 claims were submitted but since October, the number of new claims has taken a downward turn so only 19 Namibian referrals were registered between January and March 2012.

Sri Lanka just missed the top 10 source countries for 2011-2012 despite having 564 referrals. This is in contrast to the arrival of 1,200 claimants in2010 including those on the Sun Sea.

Haiti fell in the group of the top 15 source countries with 471 referrals in 2011-2012.

Other emerging countries other than the Slovak Republic were Croatia and North Korea. In the last quarter of 2011-2012 alone, the countries provided 187 referrals each.