August 2025 saw a marked decline in the number of new refugee protection claims submitted to Canada’s Refugee Protection Division (RPD), alongside continued pressures from an expanding backlog of unresolved cases.

According to the IRB’s “Recent Trends” report, new RPD claims dropped sharply from 11,170 in July to 8,785 in August.

This drop represents a decline of over 20%. Despite that reduction in intake, the backlog of pending claims did not shrink. In fact, the pending caseload rose slightly, reaching 294,423 at the end of August, up from about 291,969 in July.

The growth in pending cases underscores ongoing capacity challenges within the IRB. With fewer new claims being processed relative to existing ones, delays are likely to persist or worsen unless resource allocation, procedural efficiency, or other remedial measures are increased.

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