Protection from within Canada:
Foreign nationals living in Canada have the option to apply for protection and become permanent citizens of Canada if they fear for their lives, punishment, cruel treatment, or torture upon their return to their home country.
Applicants must follow certain rules. Once your refugee claim is submitted to Canada, designated residency officers will review your application and decide whether to forward your refugee claim to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB).
The IRB is an independent board responsible for handling all refugee-related matters. The board also assists individuals who are considered conventional refugees or persons in need of protection.
You may apply for refugee protection if:
- Meets the definition of a Convention refugee, or a person in need of protection.
- He did not enter Canada through the Canada-United States border in light of the Safe Third Country Agreement.
- No criminal record in the past.
- No previous asylum applications were declared ineligible and rejected by the IRB.
- There is no deportation order for you.
- You cannot get protection from your own government.
- The risk affects you personally. It’s not a general risk faced by others in the country. For example, the risk isn’t the result of a famine or a civil war.
- The risk is not caused by a lack of medical care in your country, unless you are unable to receive care due to persecution or discrimination.
- Risk is not the result of laws, such as punishment for committing a crime, unless these laws violate international standards.
It’s important for the claimant to demonstrate that there’s no place in their country they can reach safely. This is called an “internal flight alternative.”
Convention refugee:
Refugees under the Convention are those persons living outside their country of origin who are unable to return due to possible persecution or oppression based on race, nationality, politics, religion, or membership in a specific social group.
People in need of protection:
A person in need of protection is someone who would likely face at least one of these things if forced to return to their home country:
- torture
- a risk to life
- risk of cruel and unusual treatment
- risk of cruel and unusual punishment.
Applying for asylum or refuge from outside Canada:
The settlement of refugees from outside Canada is commonly referred to as resettlement. You are not authorized to apply directly if you wish to reside in Canada as a refugee. To obtain Canadian refugee protection, you must have a referral from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), a private sponsoring group, or a designated referral organization.