Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 September 2022
1370. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Justice her views on the recent decision to suspend the Council of Europe agreement on the abolition of visas for refugees; and the estimated number of visitors affected by the agreement in each of the years 2018 to 2021 and to date in 2022, in tabular form. [42154/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraOn 18 July 2022, the Government agreed to a proposal from myself and my colleague, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, to temporarily suspend Ireland’s participation in the Council of Europe Agreement for the Abolition of Visas for Refugees. The temporary suspension came into operation from noon on 19 July 2022. At the same time, a revised Visa Order was introduced to require visa required refugees travelling to Ireland from participating Member States to have an Irish visa.
Figures provided by the EU from its asylum fingerprint database, Eurodac, show a marked increase in secondary movements of people who have been granted international protection in another EU Member State and who have travelled to Ireland to make a subsequent application (as outlined in the following table).
The figures show an increase from 9 in 2017 to 1,418 last year.
|
Year |
Ireland Category 1 against Foreign Marked Hits |
|
2017 |
9 |
|
2018 |
83 |
|
2019 |
138 |
|
2020 |
672 |
|
2021 |
1418 |
The suspension of the operation of the Agreement is temporary and will be reviewed in a year’s time. In the meantime, Convention travel document holders who want to travel to Ireland can apply for a visa under standard visa arrangements.
The visa free travel arrangements for Ukrainian nationals introduced on 25 February in response to the war in Ukraine remain unaffected by this decision.
The Border Management Unit of my Department, who are responsible for immigration duties at Dublin Airport, does not record data on the number of visitors to Ireland who hold Convention travel documents. Therefore, I am unable provide the data sought by the Deputy.
