Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 29 September 2011
146 Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the extent to which consideration has been given to the determination of entitlement to refugee status in the case of persons (details supplied) in County Meath; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26811/11]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe persons concerned are a husband and wife who lodged separate asylum applications in 2010 and 2009, respectively. Their asylum applications were refused following the consideration of their individual cases by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and the Refugee Appeals Tribunal.
Arising from the refusal of their respective asylum applications, and in accordance with the provisions of Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended), they were separately notified, she by letter dated 16th March, 2010 and he by letter dated 28th July, 2011, that the Minister proposed to make Deportation Orders in respect of them. They were each given the options, to be exercised within 15 working days, of leaving the State voluntarily, of consenting to the making of a Deportation Order or of making representations to the Minister setting out the reasons why a Deportation Order should not be made against them. In addition, they were notified of their respective entitlements to apply for Subsidiary Protection in accordance with the provisions of the European Communities (Eligibility for Protection) Regulations 2006.
The persons concerned submitted individual applications for Subsidiary Protection. When consideration of these applications has been completed, the persons concerned will be notified in writing of the outcomes. In the event that the applications for Subsidiary Protection are refused, the position in the State of the persons concerned will then be decided by reference to the provisions of Section 3(6) of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended) and Section 5 of the Refugee Act 1996 (as amended) on the prohibition of refoulement. Once decisions have been made, these decisions and the consequences of the decisions will be conveyed in writing to the persons concerned.
I should remind the Deputy that queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to INIS by Email using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been specifically established for this purpose. The service enables up-to-date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek this information through the more administratively expensive Parliamentary Questions process.
