Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 31 January 2017
91. Deputy John Curran asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if persons coming here under the refugee protection programme have been declared refugees prior to landing here or if their claims still have to be heard when they arrive here; if the latter, if the process is the same for existing asylum applications or different; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3826/17]
View answerPeople arriving under the Irish Refugee Protection Programme fall into two general categories. Those arriving from Lebanon under the refugee resettlement strand of the programme are deemed to be "programme refugees" upon arrival as provided for under Section 59 of the International Protection Act, 2015. In other words they already have refugee status prior to arrival in Ireland.
Those arriving under the relocation strand of the Programme, from Greece or Italy, do so via a relocation mechanism established by Council Decisions EU/2015/1523 and EU/2015/1601 to assist Greece and Italy in their efforts to address the migration crisis on their shores. They do not have refugee status and arrive in Ireland as asylum seekers and go through the asylum application process operated by the International Protection Office. However, in order for an asylum seeker to be eligible for relocation an applicant must belong to a nationality for which the proportion of decisions granting international protection among decisions taken at first instance on applications for international protection is, according to the latest available updated quarterly Union-wide average Eurostat data, 75 % or higher. Therefore as relocated asylum seekers fall into the above category they generally obtain a decision on their application for international protection within 8-12 weeks.
