New refugee protection claims in Canada dropped significantly by mid-2026, falling to 2,652 cases in July after reaching over 11,000 during the same period last year. Higher processing capacity at the Refugee Protection Division helped lower the overall pending inventory to 268,058 claims, driven by a surge of 13,034 finalized cases in June alone. In contrast, pending refugee appeals continued a steady upward trend, climbing close to 6,000 open files. The latest official numb