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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 15 Oct 1992

Vol. 423 No. 6

Written Answers. - Political Asylum.

Alan Shatter

Question:

35 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Justice whether a refugee from Bosnia who arrived in this State seeking asylum was refused entry and put on a plane to France during the month of August 1992; the consideration, if any, given to a request for asylum in this State by this person; the reason there was a failure to apply the asylum procedures referred to in the letter of December 1985 forwarded by the Department of Justice to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees; the procedures that are being put in place to avoid a repetition of such events; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

The answer to the first part of the question is no. However, a Serbo-Croat who had been living in Belgrade did arrive in Dublin from Paris in late August and sought political asylum. In accordance with the international principle of claiming asylum in the first safe host country, he was returned to France and sought asylum there. However, shortly afterwards it became known that he did have some tenuous links with this country and accordingly, through our Embassy in Paris, contact was renewed and he was given permission to enter the country.

He has sought political asylum here and his application is being considered in consultation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

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