Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 16 Dec 1998

Vol. 498 No. 5

Adjournment Debate. - Asylum Seekers Deportation.

Dr. Upton

International experience indicates that only 10 per cent of asylum seekers will be found to be genuine refugees. I greatly dislike the prejudicial view of applications for asylum in the Department. It solidifies the need for an independent evaluation of applications. The Minister appears to have set himself and his officials a target for the number of applicants who will be admitted. Repeated media reports point to a pre-Christmas clear-out of unsuccessful applicants. Two applicants have been imprisoned in Mountjoy Prison and are awaiting deportation. Is this the brutal manner in which the Minister will deport the remaining unsuccessful applicants? If so, he will tarnish Ireland's image on the international stage and it could well lead to another shocking death such as the one in Belgium during one such deportation.

Due to a poor response by the State, asylum applicants have been abandoned to a state of limbo without the right to work and integrate in society. Despite these odds they have built a life for themselves. The Minister proposes to destroy their lives. Many children have been attending school for a number of years and will now be forced to leave their friends and schoolrooms.

The Minister's problem is that these deportations lack legitimacy. The provision of an independent refugee commissioner is the key to securing a fair and efficient consideration of an application for asylum. It is regrettable that the Minister has decided to shelve the Refugee Act which he supported enthusiastically and vigorously in opposition. If he believes he will solve the refugee problem by slipping mass deportations through on the quiet, he is wrong. My party will oppose such deportations which lack legitimacy. They are brutal acts against some of the weakest members of society.

It is clear that the Minister has set himself a 10 per cent target which he intends to fulfil. We cannot have confidence that his Department has considered applications fairly. It can easily be concluded that his officials pay more attention to his target figure than the terms of the Geneva Convention. The Minister is trying to slip through deportations with dawn raids and imprisonment. He will fail in this task.

There is a solution. Those who fail to be given asylum status could be allowed to remain as legal immigrants. This would allow them to reside, work and prosper in Ireland. It would not mean an open door for immigration, rather it offers a solution to the immediate problem. It is imperative that the status "refugee" remains sacrosanct under the Geneva Convention. There should not be a blanket award of refugee status. Asylum policy should not be confused with immigration policy. The Labour Party does not wish to see a dilution of the status of refugees. The Minister must not continue his policy of deportation which lacks legitimacy. There is a need for an independent refugee commissioner. Those whom his Department decides are not genuine refugees should be awarded the status of legal immigrant. This is true of those who have been resident here for a prolonged period.

Mr. O'Donoghue

Although I do not agree with much of what he said, I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to provide the clarification he seeks on the deportation of persons who have had their applications for asylum rejected. I will outline briefly the measures I have put in place for processing asylum claims.

When the Government took office in June 1997 there were 22 staff to deal with the thousands of cases which had built up over the previous two years. A few months before there were four staff assigned to this work. I was faced with a chaotic situation where nobody had given political leadership, let alone put in place administrative arrangements, and where applicants were left in the dark about whether their cases would be dealt with. The legacy of the previous Government in this area could only be described as a complete and utter shambles.

The Government has increased staffing in this area almost tenfold to close on 200. We aim to deal with new arrivals as they come into the system and, if possible, to give decisions on their applications within six months. We are making substantial inroads into the backlog of applications to such an extent that in a matter of weeks all applications lodged prior to 1997 will be at various stages of processing. We have established a one-stop-shop customised premises which includes reception, social welfare and health facilities for asylum seekers as well as the processing of claims.

The logical consequence of devoting so many resources to the processing of asylum claims at the projected cost of £8 million in 1999 is that persons who are not recognised as refugees after having been through the process must be asked to leave the State if there is no other basis for giving them permission to remain. If this were not the case and persons were allowed to remain in Ireland irrespective of whether they achieved recognition as refugees, there would be no point in processing their claims in the first place.

Many of the critics of my Department — not all of them in this House — are very ready to point to alleged shortcomings in the system of processing asylum claims but are very slow to acknowledge that persons who fail to achieve recognition as refugees must logically be asked to leave the State and be deported if necessary. This is essential in order to maintain the integrity of the asylum process and is a view very strongly shared and indeed publicly expressed by none other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Representatives of the UNHCR have stated that our system could act as a model for other countries and, naturally, this is something which pleases me greatly. They also, in the course of a recent meeting I had with them, discussed the operation of the asylum procedures and were unstinting in their praise of the strides which have been made in recent times in this respect.

With regard to the operational arrangements for deportation, these are principally a matter for the Garda Síochána who are immigration officers. This includes such matters as treatment of persons in custody and the use of restraints and complaints against individual members. With regard to the procedures that apply prior to the making of a deportation order, these have derived in the main from decisions taken by the courts.

With reference to the case of a person who was due to be deported to Belgium in accordance with the provision of the Dublin Convention, my Department has been informed by this person's solicitor that the High Court has granted leave to apply for judicial review and has ordered a stay on the deportation order.

I understand that the Garda are considering the question of instituting criminal charges in respect of alleged offences arising out of an incident which occurred during an attempt to enforce a deportation order earlier today at Dublin Air-port. In the circumstances I cannot comment in any further detail on this matter.

The statement made by Deputy Upton that there is a quota on the number of refugees who are accepted into the country is most unworthy of him. It is simply untrue.