A Federal Court of Canada ruling issued Friday states that Citizenship and Immigration Canada misled and ignored Parliament last year. The federal ministry failed to process a backlog of immigration applicants desperate to get into Canada before strict new standards became policy, according to the decision.

Justice Michael Kelen's ruling will give 102 people a fresh chance to enter Canada and could force the government to reconsider 100,000 others who were disadvantaged by CIS's ineptitude, critics said. Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland said he would launch a lawsuit to force the government to reconsider the applicants or pay them a total of at least $100 million in damages.

Canadian Alliance immigration critic Diane Ablonczy called for the resignation of Immigration Minister Denis Coderre.

Last year Coderre announced that the government would extend the deadline for processing the applicants to March of 2003. The extension was passed under an assumption of the backlog being 30,000 applicants by the first of the year, but evidence established that there will be between 80,000 and 120,000 outstanding at the end of March, Justice Kelen wrote, and the department failed to inform Parliament of the error when it became evident.

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Asylum seekers entering Britain increased in number by 20% to about 110,000 last year, the highest ever recorded, according to Home Office statistics published this week. Despite their attempts to bring the crisis under control, the government has failed to stop the numbers from increasing. The figures will prove troubling to Prime Minister Tony Blair, who promised the numbers would be halved by September. His plan was to cut the social security payments to half the asylum seekers, but the high court ruled the law broke the European convention on human rights. One of the factors contributing to the double digit increase is the number of those coming from Iraq, making up 19% of the total number of asylum seekers in the third quarter.

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Mohammad Ihsan Mutmain, a former Taliban government official with links to Mullah Mohammed Omar, has been living in Britain for nearly two years after being granted asylum by the Home Office. Mutmain is a former kung fu champion who served on Afghanistan's Olympic committee and obtained a visa by claiming he was taking part in a sports competition there. He applied for refugee status upon arrival. Mutmain is one of five people who were a part of the Taliban regime and have been given permission to stay in Britain. Members of the transitional Afghan government have expressed their disappointment with the Home Office for giving sanctuary to former Taliban fighters who should face justice in their home country.

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The Japanese Government plans to relax the requirements to be fulfilled by foreign nationals seeking refugee status. The bill will incorporate a provision that would permit foreigners to stay in the country as residents for a certain period if they apply for refugee status within six months of their arrival. The bill also requires that applicants enter Japan directly from the country where they expect to be persecuted and have no criminal record. Current laws require refugee-status requests to be made within 60 days of arrival in Japan. The law is set to be revised for the first time since Japan adopted a system for recognizing refugees in 1982.