Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 July 2018
16. Deputy Mick Wallace asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of refugees Ireland has accepted under the refugee protection programme; when the original figure of 4,000 refugees will be reached; the reason for the delays in resettlement and relocation; his views on whether the family reunification programme will experience delays; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29600/18]
View answerI wish to inform the Deputy that, in terms of numbers, Ireland committed to accept 1,040 refugees under the UNHCR resettlement strand of the Irish Refugee Protection Programme and currently 820 refugees have arrived. The remaining individuals have been identified and are due to arrive in the coming months. Under the asylum seeker relocation strand of the Programme Ireland was allocated 2,622 persons and has relocated 1,022 asylum seekers from Greece to Ireland.
As the Deputy is aware, the Irish Government pledged to accept a total of 4,000 persons into the State under the Irish Refugee Protection Programme (IRPP). There was a time limit of two years on the relocation mechanism which accounted for the bulk of the numbers committed to under the original Government commitment; approximately 2,622 persons or 66% of the overall numbers. However, EU-wide the relocation mechanism only succeeded in registering and relating 35,000 people of the original 160,000 envisaged under the relevant EU instruments. This meant that the relocation mechanism was unable to provide to Ireland the numbers that had been allocated to this country.
As the EU relocation instruments were legal in nature, Ireland had to wait until the expiry of these instruments before seeking to fill the gap in numbers using other mechanisms. Ireland has since done so by making additional pledges for programme refugees and providing a new mechanism for family reunification under the Irish Refugee Protection Programme Humanitarian Admission Programme (IHAP).
The Minister for Justice and Equality, Mr Charles Flanagan, T.D. has pledged to select a further 945 refugees from Lebanon between 2018 and 2019. Of these, 345 will be selected this year and the remainder in 2019. IHAP will also provide for the admission of up to 530 immediate family members of Irish citizens, persons with convention refugee or subsidiary protection status and persons with programme refugee status. I understand the first call for proposals, which ended on 30 June 2018, was well subscribed and these will be examined by Departmental officials to see if they meet the programme’s criteria in the coming months. Two further calls for proposals are planned for this year and additional calls may be announced in 2019.
Any remaining shortfall in numbers will be filled by Ireland using a variety of mechanisms.
