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Canada’s acceptance rate of asylum seekers is the highest in 27 years—here’s why

CBC News: Canada is accepting a higher proportion of asylum seekers. The data obtained by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation show the home country of asylum seekers, their reason for fleeing, and whether their asylum claim in Canada was granted. Nearly 10,000 out of almost 90,000 claimants made claims for religious reasons for the period January 2013 to September 2017. The top successful claims come from political and religious refugees who fit the United Nations definition of a convention refugee.

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How the government strives to tell if a refugee applicant is lying about being Christian

ABC News: Immigration experts tell ABC News that government workers can likely determine whether those seeking refugee status in the United States are lying about their religious affiliations. Royce Murray, policy director for the American Immigration Council, claims that the Department of Homeland Security is highly trained to ask for evidence supporting an asylum seeker’s claim concerning their religious persecution.

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Refugees seeking asylum on religious grounds quizzed on ‘Bible trivia’

The Guardian: Refugees applying for asylum in the UK on the grounds of conversion to Christianity are being interrogated on “Bible trivia” by immigration officials. Questions such as the following—“What are the Ten Commandments?” “When is Pentecost?” and “How many books are there in the Bible?”—are being put to asylum seekers in an attempt to test claims of religious conversion.

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Canada considers prioritizing religious minorities in Syria refugee resettlement

CBC News: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News reported that the government is considering prioritizing religious minorities from Syria when deciding which refugee claims to approve. Such a policy would leave Sunni Muslims, who compose the majority of the Syrian population, without any chance of resettlement to Canada, despite the clearly high risks they face as a result of the conflict.

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U.S. cities surge in religious refugees

Wall Street Journal: The State Department released a report documenting the largest international displacement of religious communities, particularly in conflicts with religious or sectarian dimensions. The annual report’s release came as the Obama administration announced it was nominating Rabbi David Saperstein as the next ambassador for international religious freedom.