lack of access to a PRRA can leave stateless persons in a continued state of limbo where they are denied protection and permanent residence, but also unable to be removed.531 Humanitarian and Compassionate Grounds (“H&C”) Persons in Canada and outside Canada who do not meet the requirements of the IRPA can submit an application for an exemption on the basis of H&C grounds. The H&C application requests an immigration officer to consider the “unusual and undeserved or disproportionate hardship” that would result from refusing the exemption and granting a permanent residence visa.532 Considerations include: • Establishment in Canada (for In-Canada applications) or ability to establish in Canada (for overseas applications), • Ties to Canada, • The best interests of any children affected by their application, • Factors in their country of origin, including adverse country conditions, • Health considerations, including inability of a country to provide medical treatment, • Family violence considerations, • Consequences of the separation of relatives, and • The inability to leave Canada has led to establishment (in the case of applicants in Canada).533 Statelessness is not specifically identified as a relevant factor in granting H&C applications. However, it is not excluded from consideration, since the above factors are not an exhaustive list. If statelessness is raised as a factor, the immigration officer has to consider it.534 However, the officer evaluating the H&C application is not to consider as a “hardship”: the risk of persecution, or the danger of torture, or the risk to life or risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment a stateless person will experience if they have to make a permanent residence application in their country of nationality or country of habitual residence.535 It has been noted by Andrew Brouwer that the factors that an immigration officer considers in deciding H&C applications create a practical barrier for stateless applicants. The “establishment” factor is especially difficult to achieve given the social and economic marginalization stateless Statelessness in the Canadian Context, ibid., at 45. IRPA, supra note 20 at s. 25(1). Persons identified as “designated foreign nationals” under the IRPA would not be able to submit an H&C application for five years pursuant to s. 25(1.02) of IRPA. Also, pursuant to s. 25(1.2)(c) & 25(1.21): persons who have had a refugee claim rejected within the past 12 months are unable to apply, unless removal would mean the person’s life would be at risk because of a lack of adequate medical treatment in their country of origin, or if removal would adversely affect the best interests of the child. 533 Citizenship and Immigration Canada, “The humanitarian and compassionate assessment: Hardship and the H&C assessment” (24 July 2014), available at: http://tinyurl.com/qesunqb, see also Statelessness in the Canadian Context, supra note 4 at 48-49 & 52 citing policy manuals no longer published on the CIC website: Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Immigration Manual: Inland Processing, Chapter IP 5: Immigrant Applications in Canada made on Humanitarian or Compassionate Grounds, at 5.11, and Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Immigration Manual: Overseas Processing, Chapter OP4: Processing of Applications under s. 25 of IRPA, at 8.3. 534 Statelessness in the Canadian Context, supra note 4 at 48. 535 IRPA, supra note 20 at s. 25(1.3). 531 532 110