Deportation Orders

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 February 2022

Wednesday, 16 February 2022

Ceisteanna (191)

Carol Nolan

Ceist:

191. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Justice the number of persons from 2011 to date subject to a section 3 deportation order who engaged with the voluntary returns unit to facilitate their leaving the State; the number of confirmations received that the notified person has left the State; the number of departmental staff currently assigned to the voluntary returns unit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8569/22]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Justice

Unfortunately, it has not been possible to collate the statistics requested by the Deputy within the time available. I will write to the Deputy directly when the information is to hand. 

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51.

I refer to your Parliamentary Question No. 191 which was for answer on 16 February 2022 which asked: “… the number of persons from 2011 to date subject to a section 3 deportation order who engaged with the voluntary returns unit to facilitate their leaving the State; the number of confirmations received that the notified person has left the State; the number of departmental staff currently assigned to the voluntary returns unit; and if she will make a statement on the matter.”

You will recall that at the time, I undertook to seek the information requested and revert to you.

With apologies for the delay in issuing a further response, I can now confirm that there is no readily available data on the numbers of persons with Section 3 Deportation Orders who have engaged with the Voluntary Returns Unit since 2011 to facilitate their leaving the State. However a manual examination of the records from 2011 to date to determine the confirmed numbers of people who have left the State has been carried out.

Since 2011, 637 people, who when notified that the Minister intended to deport them, left the State.

452 of this group left the State with the assistance of the Voluntary Returns Unit of my Department.

A further 185 were supported by the voluntary return and reintegration programme organised by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Under this programme, the IOM assisted with the provision of travel documents and covered flight costs. Persons returned by the IOM received a reintegration grant to help cover the costs of an income generating activity, such as education; professional training and/or business set-up. This reintegration grant was recently increased in line with the recommendations of the Report of the Advisory Group on the Provision of Support including Accommodation to Persons in the International Protection Process.

There are currently two full time staff in the voluntary returns unit. The IOM voluntary return and reintegration programme is currently funded by the Department of Justice and previously also received EU funds under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

For information, this is the manual count conducted of all of the returns since 2011.

Year	No. 15 Day Letters issued to self-pay VR applicants	Total confirmed self-pay VR applicants	No. 15 Day Letters issued to IOM VR applicants	Total confirmed IOM VR applicants
2011	34	73	42	402
2012	38	90	34	359
2013	35	86	35	340
2014	16	50	17	192
2015	6	22	5	110
2016	15	44	4	143
2017	50	87	3	96
2018	89	122	11	91
2019	83	150	13	111
2020	51	96	13	107
2021	34	64	8	68
2022 (to 09/12/2022)	1	5	0	0
Overall Totals	452	889	185	2,019