A person who has been granted refugee status may apply to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform for permission to be granted to a member of his or her family to enter and reside in the State under section 18 of the Refugee Act 1996 as amended. The numbers of such family reunification applications which have been approved and refused are set out in the table below.
Year
|
Applications Made
|
Applications approved
|
Applications refused
|
2002
|
907
|
352
|
40
|
2003
|
991
|
270
|
274
|
Statistics for 2000 and 2001 are not available. The number of applications from refugees for family reunification pending at 31 December 2003 was 1,088.
A person who has been granted leave to remain in the State has no automatic entitlement to family reunification. Information on the number of applications relating to dependent family members of persons granted leave to remain on the basis of parentage of an Irish born child is set out below.
Year
|
Applications received
|
Applications approved
|
Applications refused
|
Applications abandoned
|
2002
|
88
|
38
|
3
|
4
|
2003
|
75
|
24
|
4
|
3
|