Síle de Valera
Ceist:35 Miss de Valera asked the Minister for Justice the number of people living in the State who have been granted refugee status. [5424/97]
Written Answers. - Refugee Status.
Brian Lenihan
Ceist:67 Mr. Lenihan asked the Minister for Justice the number of applications for refugee status which were processed, granted and refused in each of the years from 1994 to 1996; and the nationality of each applicant. [5450/97]
Síle de Valera
Ceist:73 Miss de Valera asked the Minister for Justice the number of people granted refugee status in each of the years 1995 and 1996. [5423/97]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 35, 67 and 73 together.
There are no statistics kept of the number of people still living in the State who have been granted refugee status. The other information sought by the Deputies is set out in the following tabular statement.
Decisions* taken in respect of applications for refugee status
|
1994 |
1995 |
1996 |
|
|
No. of applications made |
362 |
424 |
1,179 |
|
Granted refugee status |
4 |
14 |
33 |
|
Granted humanitarian leave to remain |
5 |
8 |
6 |
|
Refused status |
22 |
35 |
26 |
* It should be noted that the decisions taken in each year do not necessarily relate to applications made in those years. In addition to the decisions taken, a significant number of applications were withdrawn for various reasons in the years in question.
At 31 December 1996 there were 1,396 cases awaiting determination with a further 31 cases at appeal.
It has been the policy of successive Ministers for Justice not to disclose information on the nationality of asylum seekers or refugees having regard to the general and understandable desire on the part of individual applicants to ensure that an application for recognition as a refugee is processed in confidence. As the number of applicants of some nationalities is small, it would be relatively easy in some instances to identify particular individuals if nationality statistics were provided. Such identification could have serious implications, particularly if members of an applicant's family are still in the country of origin. Accordingly, I do not propose to depart from stated policy in this instance.