Refugee hearing procedures will resume in mid-September
The Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) of Canada will fully resume court hearing procedures for refugee applications starting September 14. According to a report by the Star, after months of consultations, the IRB said on Thursday that it will return to the pre-pandemic model to facilitate refugee application hearings starting September 14. Prior to this, the 1,200 members of the Canadian Bar Association Immigration Law Section had requested that virtual hearings be the default choice for health reasons. As of March 31, this year, the IRB had a backlog of 90,267 refugee applications. The IRB suspended all hearings in March but has gradually resumed hearing procedures since July, initially in Vancouver, and then resumed hearings in other offices across the country in early August. The IRB stated that since August 3, 880 refugee application hearings have been scheduled, 62 of which were conducted through videoconferencing.
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