Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 January 2024
1104. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Justice the number of persons who claimed asylum or international protection at Dublin Airport for each year since 2011; the number of persons who have claimed asylum or international protection at an International Protection Office after having entered the State for each year from 2011 to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1493/24]
View answerThe State is required to examine the application of anyone who presents at the borders of the State, or is in the State, and indicates that they wish to make an application for international protection. This is in accordance with our obligations under international and EU asylum law.
There is no obligation on an applicant to make an application for international protection at a designated port of entry. An applicant can lodge their initial application directly with the IPO after arrival in the State.
A significant cohort are understood to be arriving in the state to make an International Protection Applications via the land border with Northern Ireland.
It has long been the case that a small proportion of the travel within the CTA in both directions is used by people for irregular purposes.
There is very good co-operation at operational level between the Border Management Unit (BMU), Garda National immigration Bureau (GNIB) and colleagues in the UK Border Force and Immigration Enforcement. A particular focus is on working to secure the external border of the CTA.
In addition there are a number of ongoing operations, in co-operation with the UK, tackling abuses of the CTA by identifying illegal secondary movement patterns within the CTA and taking actions to disrupt such abuse.
The table below provides the breakdown of the number of international protection applications recorded between 2017 and to end of 2023 by “place of application”.
IP Applications - Place of Application*
|
- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Year of Application |
IPO |
Airports |
Ports |
Other |
Total |
|
2017 |
2,108 |
724 |
12 |
76 |
2,920 |
|
2018 |
2,211 |
1338 |
11 |
114 |
3,674 |
|
2019 |
2,277 |
2,384 |
9 |
112 |
4,782 |
|
2020 |
1,239 |
284 |
4 |
39 |
1,566 |
|
2021 |
2,101 |
513 |
9 |
25 |
2,648 |
|
2022 |
8,791 |
4,797 |
35 |
26 |
13,649 |
|
2023 |
10,350 |
2,873 |
14 |
40 |
13,277 |
* These figures are correct at time of issue, however, statistics may change due to data cleansing.
Please note that although the Deputy has asked for figures from 2011 onwards, statistics pre-2017 are not easily available in the manner sought as data would have to be extracted from a number of legacy systems. With the introduction of the International Protection Act in 2016 and the creation of the International Protection Office a new database allows for easier collation of data in more recent years therefore we have provided figures from 2017 onwards only.
