New Canadian immigration minister - faster refugee processing

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Following the January 13 resignation of Judy Sgro, newly-appointed Canadian Immigration Minister Joe Volpe will seek to speed up the process of determining who is a refugee, the website Cnews reports.

Mr. Volpe said he doesn't consider it acceptable that it should take years to deal with some cases.

"If something can be done to shorten the process it will be done," he said January 17.

Mr. Volpe also said he will immediately start looking into the situation of thousands of construction workers operating illegally in Toronto.

The new minister has taken office after the departure of Ms. Sgro who resigned following allegations that she used the services of an asylum applicant for her re-election campaign, promising to help him stay in the Country in return.