June 22, 2012

Refugee Protection Division Updates

Number of Claims Finalized

The number of claims finalized before the Refugee Protection Division in 2011-2012 was similar to the number of claims finalized in 2010-2011. A total of 21,600 claims were finalized, roughly 400 less than in the previous fiscal year. The decrease in withdrawals and abandonments in 2011-2012 explains in part the drop in claims between the two years.

During fiscal year 2011-2012, the Refugee Protection Division finalized 5,360 files from Mexico, 2655 from Haiti, 2,445 from Hungary, 1,856 from China, 1,585 from Colombia and 1,439 from Nigeria. These six countries accounted for 45% of the claims finalized by the RPD.

Roughly 20% of claims finalized in the past four years were withdrawals and abandonments. While there has been a drop in these over the last few quarters, close to 47% of the 2,445 claims finalized from Hungary in 2011-2012 were withdrawals or abandonments. 12% of the claims from Mexico were withdrawals and abandonments as well as over 50% of the claims from the Slovak Republic.

The acceptance rate at the RPD (including withdrawals and abandonments) was 38% in the past two fiscal years which is down from the preceding two years when it was 41% and 43% respectively.

Claims Waiting for a Decision

As of March 2012, there were 39,414 claims awaiting decision. This number is considerably lower than the 48,300 claims in queue at the end of March 2011 and the peak of 61,700 files in fall 2009.