About these data:​

​

• The data presented above were obtained from the Immigration and Refugee Board through an Access to Information request done by the CBC. The data include 89,517 claims that were finalized, or concluded, between Jan. 1, 2013 and Sept. 30, 2017.  

• These data refer to refugee claimants, or individuals who have made a claim in Canada for refugee protection. They do not include government- or privately-sponsored refugees. 

• The data refers to IRB decisions and not necessarily individuals. The Immigration and Refugee Board sometimes makes more than one decision for the same individual, if the case is sent back to the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) from the Refugee Appeal Division (RAD) or the Federal Court. 

• The data above only include decisions made by the RPD, the first-level decision-maker at the IRB. Appeal decisions made by the RAD are not captured in the above data. Nor are eligibility decisions regarding claims that are made by the IRB's Immigration Division.

• These data include one field for counsel per claim. Where a claimant switched counsel during the course of making their claim, only one will be listed. 

• The country and cause of persecution refer to what a claimant initially tells an Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada or Canada Border Services Agency officer when they first make a claim. The information can change as a claim progresses through the system and those changes are not captured in these data. 

• Regarding claim types, the IRB cautions that the statistics above are not necessarily indicative of the basis for a decision on a claim for the following reasons: · In some cases there is more than one claim type for a single claim, but only the first claim type listed is reflected in these data. · Claim type categories are generic and are the “best fit” for each case given the available categories. · If the claim type changes during the adjudication of the case, the new claim type is not entered in the IRB’s case tracking system. · Each case before the IRB is decided on its own merits by independent decision-makers. · The decision on a claim may be based on factors other than the claim type.