Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 2 Feb 2000

Vol. 513 No. 4

Written Answers. - Asylum Applications.

Ruairí Quinn

Ceist:

109 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his policy in regard to forcible deportation of those whose applications for asylum have been refused; the number of persons removed to EU states under the Dublin Convention in 1998 and 1999; and, further to Parliamentary Question Nos. 782 of 29 September 1999 and 303 of 12 October 1999, the reason for the apparent contradiction between details given for the numbers transferred out under the Dublin Convention for the years 1997 and 1998. [2536/00]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue)

Under the Immigration Act, 1999, among the categories of person in respect of whom a deportation order may be made is a person whose application for asylum has been rejected or a person whose application has been transferred to another state party to the Dublin Convention for examination. Section 3 of the Act sets out the procedures which, subject to the provisions of section 5 – prohibition of refoulement– of the Refugee Act, 1996, will apply in considering cases of this nature.

In preparing the reply to this question, it has emerged that there may be some minor discrepancies in the figures provided for those cases transferred under the Dublin Convention which on preliminary examination appear to be mainly related to the categorisations used and, as I would not wish in any way to mislead the House, I am having all the figures re-checked and I will write to the Deputy giving the appropriate figures as soon as they are available.