Media: Over 540 Romanians claimed asylum in Canada in three months

Romania is third in the ranking of countries with most asylum seekers in Canada in 2018, after Nigeria and India, according to data from the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) within the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB), presented by local G4media.ro. RPD has received asylum claims from 544 Romanians in the first three months of the year (January-March), but none of them has been accepted so far. Also, ten asylum claims were abandoned and another 23 were withdrawn. The statistics also showed the total number of claims from Romanians, pending as of March 31, amounts to 655. In the first three months of 2018, Canada registered 12,682 asylum claims, most of which came from Nigerian citizens (3,397), followed by Indians (788) and Romanians. Altogether, by the end of March, the Canadian authorities had 48,967 of asylum cases to review. Canada has lifted the visas for Romanians and Bulgarians from December 1, 2017. The action was the result of intense diplomatic efforts and political and technical negotiations between the EU, Canada, and Romania and Bulgaria as EU members, according to a release from the European Commission. Canada sees increase in Romanian asylum claims after visa lift Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com