Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 27 Jan 1999

Vol. 499 No. 1

Written Answers. - Refugee Status.

Liz McManus

Question:

788 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of asylum seekers seeking refugee status for each of the years from 1990 to 1998. [1026/99]

Liz McManus

Question:

789 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of successful applicants granted refugee status for each of the years from 1990 to 1998. [1027/99]

Liz McManus

Question:

790 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of successful applicants seeking refugee status having been granted this status after initial interview with his Department for each of the years from 1990 to 1998. [1028/99]

Liz McManus

Question:

791 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of asylum seekers granted refugee status after the appeal stage of the procedure for each of the years from 1990 to 1998. [1029/99]

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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 788, 789, 790 and 791 together.

The information sought by the Deputy for the years 1992 to 1998 is set out in the tabular statements. There are no records available in my Department to enable me to provide the infor mation sought by the Deputy in Questions Nos. 790 and 791 for the years 1990 and 1991. The information available for the years 1990 and 1991 is as follows.

	1990	1991
Number of Applications:	62	31
Number Granted:	1	1

Table 1

Asylum Seekers 1992-1998

	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
Number of applications	39	91	362	424	1,179	3,883	4,626
Number of applicants withdrawn before decision	3	52	222	219	547	1,263	396
Number of withdrawn applications re-submitted to the Asylum Process	0	0	0	0	5	21	12
Number of applications transferred under Dublin Convention	0	0	0	0	0	15	15
First Stage
Number recognised as refugees at first stage of determination	7	9	34	90	167	67	9
Number refused at first stage of determination	29	30	106	112	391	434	338
deemed abandoned					1		1
found to be manifestly unfounded	0	0	0	1	11	47	45
of which – returned to first stage determination process following appeal of manifestly unfounded decision					3	5	4
of which – granted temporary leave to remain	(7)	(5)	(66)	(21)	(36)	(0)	(0)
Number of first instance applications outstanding	NIL	NIL	NIL	2	70	2,083	3,838
Appeal Stage
Number of cases appealed	6	21	21	69	299	360	225
Number of man/unfounded				1	4	19	7
Total appealed	6	21	21	70	303	379	232
Number of cases withdrawn before appeal	2	3	6	8	10	12	7
Number of cases granted refugee status following appeal–	1	1	1	5	20	14	2
Number returned to first stage determination process					3	5	4
Number of cases refused following appeal	3	17	14	48	98	27	3
Number of cases upheld as manifestly unfounded				(1)	(1)	(10)
of which–
granted temporary leave to remain following appeal	(2)	(11)	(1)	(1)	(1)	(0)	(0)
Number of appeal cases outstanding	0	0	0	8	171	311	216
–of which manifestly unfounded						(3)	(3)
Total number of cases on hands	0	0	0	10	241	2,394	4,054
							6,699

*It should be noted that these decisions refer to the year in which the application was made and not to the year in which decisions were taken.

Table 2

Decisions taken in*

	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
Granted refugee status at first stage	4	15	36	209	128
Granted refugee status at appeal stage	0	0	0	4	40
Refused statusof which–	27	43	32	304	1202
granted temporary leave to remain at first instance	(5)	(8)	(6)	(120)	(0)
of which–
were found to be manifestly unfounded	(0)	(0)	(0)	(0)	(104)
were deemed abandoned					(2)
of which – returned to first stage determination process following					(12)
appeal of manifestly unfounded decision	(0)	(0)	(0)	(0)	(21)
granted temporary leave to remain following appeal
Total	31	58	68	517	1,370

*It should be noted that these decisions refer to the year in which the decisions were taken and NOT to the year in which the applications were lodged.