Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 26 May 1998

Vol. 491 No. 3

Written Answers. - Asylum Applications.

Liz McManus

Question:

435 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will undertake to satisfy himself in all cases that asylum seekers will be admitted to the asylum procedures in the EU country to which they are returned with regard to the return of asylum seekers to other EU countries; and if he will undertake that no asylum seekers will be returned to an EU state whose asylum procedures are deficient and where an asylum seeker might run the risk of being returned to their country of origin where they may face persecution. [12245/98]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue)

The Deputy is obviously referring to the provisions of the Dublin Convention whereby an asylum seeker may be returned to another EU member state to have his or her asylum application considered.

An underlying philosophy of the Dublin Convention is a basic confidence on the part of the member states in each other's procedures in relation to asylum law. Although only of limited scope, the establishment of responsibility for examining applications for asylum implicitly presupposes that member states have mutual confidence in each other as one member state consents to an application for asylum lodged with it being processed by another member state in accordance with the latter's national legislation.

The convention's starting point is that it guarantees the member states' commitment to honour their obligations under the United Nations Convention relating to the status of refugees which specifically provides that no contracting state shall expel or return a refugee in any manner to the frontiers of territories where life or freedom would be threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. This prohibition of refoulement is given effect in section 5 of the Refugee Act, 1996.