Seán Haughey
Question:1049 Mr. Haughey asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the costs of deportations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21573/04]
View answerWednesday, 29 September 2004
Questions (868, 869)
Written answers
The deportation costs provided below refer to the deportation of either illegal immigrants, persons refused refugee status in the State or persons whose applications for asylum have been transferred to another country under the Dublin Convention-Dublin II regulations. The vast majority of the removals involved persons who were refused refugee status in the State.
Set out below are the number of deportation orders effected since the commencement of the Immigration Act 1999 and the associated cost of flights for the deportees and their Garda escorts:
|
Year |
No. of Deportation Orders Effected |
Cost (Euros) |
|
1999 |
6 |
27,349 |
|
2000 |
187 |
431,455 |
|
2001 |
365 |
1,169,574 |
|
2002 |
521 |
1,816,314 |
|
2003 |
590 |
1,569,782 |
|
2004 |
390 (up to 31/08/04) |
1,338,295* |
*Amount paid up to 31/08/04
The figures above do not include the cost of overtime or subsistence payments for Garda escorts but include the cost of ten charter flights since 2002 at a total cost of €1,099,482.
The deportation of illegal immigrants and refused asylum seekers is costly, particularly to distant countries such as Nigeria, China etc. In most cases, removals are carried out using commercial flights which usually involves transit through other European airports as Ireland does not have direct flights to most of the countries of return. In addition, most flights have to be booked at short notice very near the date of departure which involves higher costs than if booked well in advance.
In addition, in considering the costs of deportations, the continued presence in the State of persons who are the subject of deportation orders has to be taken into account. These costs include social welfare costs, direct provision costs and detention costs in certain cases. While it is important to keep deportation costs to a minimum, not to remove persons refused permission to remain in the State would call into question the integrity of the entire immigration system. This would leave this country open to further illegal immigration and even more expense to taxpayers.
Seán Haughey
Question:1050 Mr. Haughey asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the costs of the refugee and asylum seeker process, including accommodation costs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21574/04]
View answerWhile the costs arising from the provision of services to asylum seekers are primarily a matter for the individual Departments and agencies with responsibility for such services, the most recent information available to me indicates that the amount spent on asylum seeker services for 2003, which also includes immigration functions such as the operation of the deportation process, was in the region of €353 million spread between a number of Government Departments and agencies.
In 2003 the total cost to my Department and the asylum agencies of asylum and immigration services was in the region of €120 million. This included costs directly associated with the processing of asylum applications and also expenditure on, for example, the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers and the operation of the deportation process. A further €120 million has been provided for this purpose in my Department's Vote in 2004. The accommodation element of the latter figures accounted for some €77 million in 2003 and has been estimated at €69 million for the year ending December 2004.
The successful implementation of the Government's asylum strategy including the operation of the wide ranging amendments to the Refugee Act 1996 contained in the Immigration Act 2003 which were aimed at, inter alia, streamlining the asylum decision making process, has had a positive impact in terms of processing times and partly resulted in the second highest reduction in asylum applications in any EU state in 2003. While any continued reduction in asylum applications can be expected to have an impact on the level of resources allocated to services for asylum seekers in the future, expenditure in this area will have to be maintained at an appropriate level so as to ensure the efficient and effective processing of applications in particular.
In addition, the provision of immigration related services generally will continue to require an adequate level of resources so as to ensure that these also continue to be provided in an efficient and effective manner. This will include resources, for example, for the operation of the deportation process and for the processing of applications for visas and citizenship all of which have been on the increase in recent years.