Vol. 547 No. 1
946 Mr. McGuinness asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will investigate the circumstances in the case of a person (details supplied) in County Kilkenny to deter mine the way in which his Department will assist in protecting this person and reuniting this person's family who are in Albania; and if officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs will arrange to meet a person (details supplied) to discuss his case. [1584/02]
Under the Refugee Act, 1996, two independent statutory offices were established to consider applications/appeals for refugee status and make recommendations to the Minister on whether such status should be granted. The two offices are the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner, which considers applications for a declaration as a refugee in first instance and the Refugee Appeals Tribunal which considers applications for a declaration at appeal stage. A decision on the application in question will be made upon receipt of the recommendation of the Refugee Applications Commissioner or the Refugee Appeals Tribunal as appropriate.
The Department does not generally process applications from persons to be joined here by their immediate family members where that person's permission to remain in the State is solely for the purpose of pursuing an asylum application. Any proposal to have officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs meet with the person concerned would be a matter for that Department.
Question No. 947 answered with Question No. 935.
