Refugees languishing in years-long backlog

More than four years after Hanifi Ozdemir arrived seeking asylum in Canada, the Kurdish political activist from Turkey is still waiting for a hearing date.

The father of two is among 6,300 so-called legacy claimants languishing in the asylum system for as many as six years as officials direct resources to cases filed after December 2012 when the former Conservative government imposed statutory time limits on the processing of new claims.