Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 14 Oct 1997

Vol. 481 No. 4

Adjournment Debate. - Treatment of Asylum Seekers.

Dr. Upton

I thank the Minister of State for taking the trouble to attend the House to respond to this matter. Last Saturday, 2,000 applicants for asylum status were force to queue in the rain for periods of four hours to renew their identity cards at the headquarters of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. This is unacceptable. It is not good enough to keep any customer or individual waiting for that period.

I am unable to accept that this matter could not have been handled better by means of a small amount of planning and thought. Why could the Department not have staggered the registration process of these asylum seekers over a longer period? Why could the applicants not have been grouped so that they could be taken in slots of 50 or 100 at various stages over the weekend? Why could it not have learned from the Department of Foreign Affairs which, a few years ago, produced an effective way of tackling the large numbers of people queueing for passports at the peak of the tourism season? That problem appears to have been tackled effectively.

I doubt if this treatment would be accepted or tolerated if Irish people were exposed to it. The refugees must have felt completely humiliated last Saturday. Their experience must have been made worse by the fact that they had to queue in the rain and that people took photographs of them in their misery. I am sure people would be appalled if Irish men or women were subjected to this type of treatment in another country.

The events last Saturday are another example of the ineffective manner in which the refugee problem is being handled. The Department appears unable to cope with the increased number of people seeking refugee or asylum status. I understand that approximately 60 cases a year were handled up to 1994 but in excess of 2,000 people are seeking asylum status at this point. It is important procedures are put in place now to allow quick decisions to be reached in relation to these applicants. It is wrong to keep asylum seekers in a state of uncertainty for prolonged periods. It is also costly in terms of expenditure by the social services.

The events of last Saturday are contrary to the objectives of the strategic management initiative for the Civil Service. They are in total conflict with the aims of the SMI which has been in place for the past few years and is designed to achieve the delivery of an improved quality service to the public. They make a mockery of the sentiments expressed by the previous Taoiseach, Deputy John Bruton, in the foreword to the latest SMI report. I was encouraged by the remarks of the Taoiseach, Deputy Ahern, during today's Order of Business when he expressed his concern about the events on Saturday. I hope his comments will trigger an appropriate response.

The refugee problem has been allowed to fester for more than a year. It was a major issue during the last general election for Deputies representing Dublin city centre constituencies. It is time the problem was properly addressed through engaging sufficient and competent staff to process the backlog and attend to new applications in an efficient and speedy manner. Approximately 90 per cent of the people who arrive in Ireland seeking asylum status will not be granted it. This has been the experience to date in Ireland and also internationally. It is most important that plans are made to deal effectively with applications as speedily as possible. The current position is grossly unfair to people who will be accorded asylum status. It is also unfair to those who will not qualify because they are kept waiting excessively long periods. In addition, it is unfair to the overworked and under resourced staff of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform who appear to find the entire process difficult to handle at present.

Miss M. Wallace

I thank Deputy Upton for raising this important issue and for the opportunity to outline the circumstances which gave rise to the events last Saturday and the previous Saturday. On Saturday, 11 October, 727 identification cards were issued to asylum seekers. A further 721 cards had been issued the previous Saturday.

I wish to explain why the people concerned were asked to be at the Department in the first place. The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform is responsible for processing applications from persons seeking asylum in Ireland. The Department issues each applicant admitted to the asylum process with an identification card. This card is used by asylum seekers in their dealings with the Department and also with the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs and the health boards.

It is most unfortunate that those concerned suffered any distress in the process. There were, as one might expect, a number of contributory factors which led to the situation. To facilitate the reissue of out of date identification cards and taking account of the large number of asylum seekers involved, it was decided that the best way of dealing with the matter was to set aside a couple of days for the task. A further consideration was the need to ensure that the day to day work of the asylum area of the Department, and the work of the Department as a whole, would not be unduly disrupted. Yet another consideration was the fact that a significant number of asylum seekers change their addresses on a regular basis without informing the authorities.

In light of these considerations and the fact that it was necessary to have access to the Department's files on the applicants, it was decided to reissue identification cards on Saturday, 4 October, and Saturday, 11 October. Over the two days set aside for the real issue of identification cards only 1,450 people approximately turned up. A further 115 cards were issued yesterday and more turned up today: this has caused great difficulties in the Department as new applicants have to be processed at the same time. In all, some 1,700 new cards have been issued over the past ten days. This begs the question of where are the other 2,000 or so persons registered as asylum seekers. One of the issues which arose over the past two Saturdays was the significant number of persons who were identified as making multiple applications for asylum.

The problems facing this Department and other Departments and agencies of the State in the area of asylum are substantial. At its core is the fact that for the most part this country is dealing not with a major influx of refugees but with a major influx of illegal immigrants. The distinction is important. A refugee is a person who has a well founded fear of persecution on grounds of race, religion, nationality, etc. Without wishing to prejudge the outcome of those applications awaiting processing, it is clear many of our so-called asylum seekers are economic migrants and/or illegal immigrants. It must be noted that if one was to operate on the basis of international comparisons alone, one would expect that something of the order of 10 per cent, or less, of asylum seekers would be granted refugee status at the end of the day. Even if we were to be generous and say that 25 per cent of our applicants would obtain such status, only about 900 persons of the Department's current case load would obtain asylum status. This problem leads to a situation where those people who are genuine refugees are suffering because of illegal immigration, some of which is clearly organised.

In an effort to cope with the serious backlog of applications on hands, most of which dates back over the past 12 months, the Minister has obtained the agreement of his Cabinet colleagues to the recruitment of additional staff to process this backlog of cases and this recruitment process is in hands. New accommodation is also being procured with the aim of providing badly needed additional space for the persons involved in processing asylum applications, better conditions for asylum seekers to present their cases and as a one-stop-shop for asylum seekers in their dealings with State agencies. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is being consulted on an ongoing basis with a view to ensuring all cases are processed in accordance with our international obligations.

Any distress caused last Saturday is regrettable. People should not have to undergo avoidable inconvenience when it comes to renewing identification cards. Lessons have been learned and a better procedure will be in place when a mass reissue of cards is next required.

The Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, wished to take this Adjournment but he is attending an international conference of European Justice Ministers in Prague on the subject of illegal immigration, trafficking in humans and related issues.

I hope the reply is of assistance to the Deputy.

The Dáil adjourned at 9.05 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 15 October 1997.