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The program will allow up to 6,955 failed claimants to participate. There were 98,380 total refugee claimants living in Canada in 2010 and 15,073 were removed from the country that same year.

How much money a claimant receives depends on the appeal process they may have started following the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada’s initial rejection.

A claimant can receive $2,000 if they apply before going to a federal court to review the IRB’s decision, $1,500 if they haven’t applied for a pre-removal risk assessment and $1,000 if they already received a decision on that risk assessment.

The risk assessment looks at whether the applicant may be in danger if they return to their home country.

However, until July 13, applicants are eligible for the entire $2,000, even if they have filed appeals.

The $31.9 million scheme, which lasts until March 2015, has been described as a “bribe” to keep refugee cases away from the courts.

“The idea is to incentive people to execute their own removal order, which in principle, I don’t really have a problem with,” Toronto immigration lawyer Joel Sandaluk claimed Thursday.

“Except for the fact that … what it is also doing is incentivizing people not to seek judicial review of the refugee board’s decision in federal court.”

To be eligible, claimants must not have criminal records or have had their claim deemed to not have any credible basis, among several other limitations.

The IOM, in Toronto and in the person’s home country, disperses the money.

With files from Josh Visser and Allison Cross