refugee origins

[on-hold]

I'm curious what the standards are for claiming refugee status -- I've met a couple of refugees from Namibia, which surprised me; I wasn't aware of anything going on there that would make people flee. I didn't want to ask them myself, I'm sure they get that question a great deal, but am curious what people here have to say.

 

[Leon]

Anybody can claim refugee status but the odds of getting approved as a refugee are not very high if you come from a country where there is no war, no history of human rights violations etc. Some countries may not be war-torn but may persecute certain people because of their religion or sexual preference for example and such people may be granted refugee status if they can show that is the case.

You can see some facts and figures on refugees and where they come from here:
Total entries by country / year: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/facts2012/temporary/25.asp
Refugees present by country / year: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/facts2012/temporary/26.asp

You see that there was a huge spike in refugee claims from Mexico there at some point due to the fact the dishonest immigration consultants were actually travelling around Mexico advising people to apply for refugee status as a good method to immigrate. Most of these people were of course denied and deported. As a result of the huge number of refugees from Mexico, immigration decided that Mexicans would no longer be visa exempt.