From 2011 – 2019 Canada’s refugee system contained a list of Designated Countries of Origin (“DCO“). History Bill C-11, the Balanced Refugee Reform Act, received Royal Assent on June 29, 2010. It introduced sweeping changes to Canadian refugee law, including establishing the DCO regime. The government estimated that approximately 10% of all asylum claimants in Canada could be subject to expedited processing under the DCO policy. The government has estimated that designations would result in a 57% decline in the number of claims received from such countries over the 12 months following a designation. The DCO List The initial list of DCOs covers 27 countries, 25 of which are in the European Union (edit: see below for a list of additional countries that have been added): Austria Belgium Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Poland Portugal Slovak Republic Slovenia Spain Sweden United Kingdom United States of America