Since the commencement of the International Protection Act 2015 on 31 December 2016, a single application procedure applies where all aspects of a person's application (refugee status, subsidiary protection status and permission to remain) are examined and determined in one process. Prior to this, the three strands were examined sequentially and this could lead to long delays in obtaining a final decision.
Upon the commencement of the 2015 Act, approximately 3,500 legacy cases were carried over to be dealt with under the new single application procedure (1,500 of these cases were from the former Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and 2,000 from the former Refugee Appeals Tribunal). A further 500 cases transitioned in the months following commencement. These cases would have been the longest in the system at the commencement of the Act.
The International Protection Office (IPO) committed to scheduling these legacy cases for interview by the end of 2018 and for completion by the end of Q2 2019, where possible.
The IPO achieved the first part of this commitment in 2018 by scheduling all transition cases for interview, where it was possible to do so. The vast majority of the legacy cases have now been processed to completion in the IPO, and the focus is now on post commencement single procedure cases.
Some legacy cases will continue to be dealt with. These include transition applicants who had not co-operated up to this point but who are now re-engaging with the process and applicants who have come back into the process through Judicial Review. These cases are prioritised and scheduled for interview at the earliest possible opportunity and are processed accordingly.
I append a number of tables providing the details requested by the Deputy on the number of applications by asylum seekers or International Protection applicants, as they are now known, who received a final decision on their cases by the Ministerial Decisions Unit in each year since 2010 .
|
Year of Decision
|
Total Decisions
|
|
2010
|
3,705*
|
|
2011
|
1,815*
|
|
2012
|
1,021*
|
|
2013
|
965*
|
|
2014
|
2,032
|
|
2015
|
2,804
|
|
2016
|
2,766
|
|
2017
|
1,191
|
|
2018
|
1,603
|
|
2019
|
2,872
|
|
2020
|
693
|
|
Grand Total
|
21,467
|
* These figures were collated from the Department's AISIP database. However, Subsidiary Protection figures for 2010 to 2013 were not included on that database and were therefore compiled under a different process for which an annual breakdown is not available. Therefore a further 92 cases granted Subsidiary Protection between 2010 and 2013 must be added to the grand total for the period from 2010 to date, giving an overall total of 21,559.
The following table sets out the number of these applications that resulted in refugee status (RS) being granted, the number of cases that resulted in subsidiary protection (SP) being granted and the number that resulted in humanitarian leave to remain (PTR) being granted.
|
Grants by year and grant type
|
Type of grant
|
|
|
|
|
Year Decision
|
RS Grant
|
SP Grant
|
PTR Review Grant
|
Grand Total
|
|
2010
|
159
|
#
|
|
159
|
|
2011
|
132
|
#
|
|
132
|
|
2012
|
93
|
#
|
|
93
|
|
2013
|
195
|
#
|
|
195
|
|
2014
|
212
|
270
|
|
482
|
|
2015
|
325
|
231
|
|
556
|
|
2016
|
590
|
137
|
|
727
|
|
2017
|
685
|
106
|
|
791
|
|
2018
|
828
|
224
|
29
|
1081
|
|
2019
|
947
|
168
|
169
|
1284
|
|
2020
|
257
|
68
|
48
|
373
|
|
Grand Total
|
4,423
|
1,204#
|
246
|
5,873#
|
# As noted above, 92 Subsidiary Protection permissions were granted in the period between 2010 and 2013 which were recorded on Repatriation systems rather than on the AISIP database. An annual breakdown of the total for those years is not available. However, including those grants, the total number of Subsidiary Protection grants for the period from 2010 to date would come to 1,296 and the overall total for the period would come to 5,965.
The table below sets out the various categories of refusal, including those deemed refused due to withdrawal by the applicants or deemed withdrawn due to lack of response from the applicant.
|
Refusal by year and refusal type
|
Type of Refusal
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
YearDecision
|
PTR Review Refusal
|
Refuse All
|
RS Deemed Withdrawn
|
RS Refusal
|
RS Refused-Withdrawn
|
SP Deemed Withdrawn
|
SP Refusal
|
SP Refused-Withdrawn
|
Grand Total
|
|
2010
|
|
|
|
3,546
|
|
|
728
|
|
4,274
|
|
2011
|
|
|
|
1,683
|
|
|
1,161
|
|
2,844
|
|
2012
|
|
|
|
926
|
2
|
|
681
|
|
1,609
|
|
2013
|
|
|
|
768
|
2
|
|
40
|
|
810
|
|
2014
|
|
|
7
|
431
|
71
|
447
|
104
|
490
|
1,550
|
|
2015
|
|
|
8
|
610
|
266
|
481
|
571
|
312
|
2,248
|
|
2016
|
|
|
21
|
941
|
347
|
229
|
454
|
47
|
2,039
|
|
2017
|
|
7
|
|
61
|
|
6
|
323
|
3
|
400
|
|
2018
|
299
|
116
|
|
52
|
|
|
55
|
|
522
|
|
2019
|
533
|
924
|
|
59
|
|
|
71
|
1
|
1,588
|
|
2020
|
178
|
126
|
|
6
|
|
|
10
|
|
320
|
|
Grand total
|
1,010
|
1,173
|
36
|
9,083
|
688
|
1,163
|
4,198
|
853
|
18,204
|
* Refuse All figures are applications under the IP Act 2015 (single procedure) that were not appealed to the IPAT and a decision issued from the Ministerial Decisions Unit. The decision is a refusal by the Ministerial Decisions unit of both Refugee Status (RS) and Subsidiary Protection (SP) only.
*PTR Review Refusal are applications that were refused Refugee Status (RS) and Subsidiary Protection (SP) and post appeal to the IPAT were also refused Permission to Remain(PTR) by the Ministerial Decisions Unit.
*SP Refusals and RS Refusals are refusals that were not made under the single procedure but were either legacy cases under the Refugee Act 1996 or cases processed under the transitional provisions of the IP Act 2015.
The table below sets out the number of Deportations*
|
Year Deported
|
Total Deported
|
|
2010
|
343
|
|
2011
|
280
|
|
2012
|
302
|
|
2013
|
209
|
|
2014
|
114
|
|
2015
|
251
|
|
2016
|
428
|
|
2017
|
140
|
|
2018
|
163
|
|
2019
|
298
|
|
2020 (up to 04.06.2020)
|
87
|
|
Total
|
2615
|
*The figures above are for effected deportations, i.e,. it includes those deported and those deemed to be deported, who left the state themselves having received a deportation order.
Since the International Protection Act 2015 (the 2015 Act) commenced on 31 December 2016, the International Protection Office has carried out the function of considering Permission to Remain (under section 49 of the 2015 Act).
Permission to Remain decisions
|
Year
|
Grant
|
Refusal
|
|
2020 (to end April)
|
42
|
618
|
|
2019
|
266
|
2,083
|
|
2018
|
198
|
1,833
|
|
2017
|
66
|
618
|
