Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 12 Oct 1999

Vol. 509 No. 1

Written Answers. - Asylum Applications.

Ivor Callely

Question:

303 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of applications for asylum for each of the years from 1990 to date; the increase, if any, in applications in recent times which may arise due to procedural changes of entitlements in Great Britain; the number of applicants that arrived in Ireland from Great Britain; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19805/99]

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

The information sought by the Deputy is set out in the following tabular statements:

Table 1

Asylum Seekers 1992-1999

	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999(30/9)
No. of applications	39	91	362	424	1,179	3,883	4,626	4,446
No. of applications withdrawn before decision	3	52	222	220	550	1,358	768	165
No. of withdrawn applications re-submitted to the Asylum Process	0	0	0	0	10	52	26	6
No. of applications transferred out under Dublin Convention	0	0	0	0	0	15	15	0

First Stage

No. recognised as refugees	7	9	34	90	171	118	67	2
No. refused	29	30	106	113	430	1,431	1,468	114
No. deemed abandoned					28	666	759	23
of which returned to first stage determination process							9
No. found to be manifestly unfounded				1	11	65	89	9
of which returned to first stage determination process following appeal of manifestly unfounded decision					3	5	4
granted temporary leave to remain	7	5	66	21	36	0	0
No. of first instance applications outstanding	0	0	0	0	2	287	1,499	4,139

Appeal Stage

No. of substantive cases appealed	6	21	21	74	361	1,209	941	48
No. of Man/Unfounded cases appealed				1	4	25	35	2
Total appealed	6	21	21	75	365	1,234	976	50
No. of cases withdrawn before appeal	2	3	6	9	23	83	67	3
No. of cases granted refugee status following appeal	1	1	1	9	84	163	70
No. returned to first stage determination process					3	5	4
No. of substantive cases refused following appeal	3	17	14	53	210	279	121
No. of Man/Unfounded refused following appeal				1	1	13	8

granted temporary leave to remain following appeal	2	14	5	7	8	5	0
No. of appeal cases outstanding	0	0	0	3	44	691	706	47
of which-manifestly unfounded						6	19	2
No. of cases in hand	0	0	0	3	46	978	2,205	4,186

Total7,418

It should be noted that all above figures relating to decisions, withdrawals, appeals etc., refer to the year in which the application was lodged and NOT to the year in which the decision, withdrawal, appeal etc. was made.

Table 2

Decisions taken in (a)

	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999(30/9)
Granted refugee status at first stage	4	15	36	209	128	115
Granted refugee status at appeal stage	0	0	0	4	40	285
Refused status at first stage or following the appeal of which	27	43	32	304	1,202	3,746
-granted temporary leave to remain at first instance(b)	5	8	6	120	0	0
-were found to be manifestly unfounded(c)	0	0	0	0	104	71
-were deemed abandoned(d)					2	1,474
-returned to first stage determination process following appeal of manifestly unfounded decision					12
Total	31	58	68	517	1,370	4,146

(a)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.

(b)The practice of granting temporary leave to remain at the first instance ceased with effect from December 1997 following the introduction of revised procedures for processing claims as notified to the UNHCR. The granting of temporary leave to remain is considered by the Minister after the asylum process.

(c)The grounds on which it may be determined that an application for asylum is manifestly unfounded were introduced in December 1997.

(d)In addition a total of 452 cases were withdrawn in 1998 prior to the implementation of the procedures for deeming cases abandoned. These cases are reflected in the statistics in Table 1 in the category "applications withdrawn before decision".

Information for the years 1990 and 1991 are not readily available. The footnotes in respect of the information at table 2 are self-explanatory.

The numbers seeking asylum here continues to rise. The total number of asylum applicants this year has already exceeded the total figure for 1998 with 4,743 applicants to 8 October 1999. The numbers applying during 1999 increased from 234 in January to 453 in June but jumped dramatically from 571 in July to 938 in September. There are a number of factors which may have influenced this rate of arrival, including the matter referred to by the Deputy.

I am not in a position to supply information regarding the number of applicants who may have arrived in Ireland from Great Britain. This information would only be available if applicants were stopped by immigration officials at the ports of entry and my Department advised accordingly by the Garda Síochána, as is the case in a small number of cases. However, records in my Department are not maintained in such a way as to enable these figures to be extracted without the diversion of a disproportionate amount of staff resources which at this time would not be warranted.

It is the fact that in excess of 80 per cent of asylum applications are lodged "inland" at the Refugee Applications Centre in Mount Street. Less than 20 per cent of applications are made to an immigration officer on arrival. This would suggest that most asylum applicants enter the State without coming to the attention of immigration officers or concealed in vehicular traffic, the majority of which originates or transits the UK. In the absence of fingerprinting, the mechanisms of the Dublin Convention have been ineffective in returning to the UK those applicants whose applications are the responsibility of the UK authorities. I hope this situation will change in the near future with the introduction of fingerprinting.