Catherine Murphy
Ceist:
158. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Justice the number of stateless persons in the country from 2000 to date; and the number of stateless children in the country from 2000 to date in tabular form. [53689/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra
It has not been possible to compile this information in the time available.
I will write to the Deputy directly with the information requested, when it is available.
The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51.
I refer to Parliamentary Question No. 158
which was for answer on 26 October 2022 and which asked: “…the number of stateless persons in the country from 2000 to date; and the number of stateless children in the country from 2000 to date in tabular form. ”
You will recall that at the time, I undertook to seek the information requested and revert to you. I apologise for the delay in issuing a further response.
Statelessness results from the complex interaction of many legal and other factors. There is no specific determination process for recognition of stateless persons in Ireland. Claims of statelessness can arise at any point in the immigration and protection processes and the numbers involved are very low. My Department deals with such cases without recourse to a determination of their statelessness status.
The determination of any such cases is not centralised in a single process or section of my Department's Immigration Service Delivery. As such, applications for immigration permission or naturalisation are determined through the procedures set out under the Immigration Acts, the International Protection Act 2015 or the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, as amended.
Every such assertion of statelessness raised during the naturalisation process is dealt with on an individual basis whereby the citizenship laws of the country of origin, country of birth and any other relevant country that may be involved in any individual’s case are examined, to determine whether the applicant is entitled to a route to citizenship in one or any of those countries and whether they have a right to permanent residence in any of those countries, as appropriate.
Section 16(1) of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 provides that:
“The Minister may, in his absolute discretion, grant an application for a certificate of naturalization in the following cases, although the conditions for naturalization (or any of them) are not complied with:…
(g) where the applicant is a person who is a refugee within the meaning of the United National Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of the 28
th
day of July 1951 and the Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees of the 31
st
day of January 1967 or is a Stateless person within the meaning of the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons of the 2th day of September 1954”
It should be noted that any such grants under Section 16 are at the absolute discretion of the Minister. Where an applicant asserts statelessness within their application for citizenship, then information and evidence from the relevant sources must be provided to support consideration of any such assertion.
The Citizenship division of my Department has advised that the number of applications for citizenship claiming entitlement based on Statelessness status from 2011 to date has been 26.
Of these, 7 have been granted citizenship and 4 continue to be processed; this refers to all applicants for citizenship, not just children. I am also informed that the retrieval and compilation of the information requested by the Deputy for the complete period in question would necessitate a disproportionate use of time and resources which could not be justified in circumstances where the priority is to deal with the cases on hand.
The International Protection Office of my Department has confirmed that during the period 2000 to 2022 (to end September), there have been 165 cases of persons who specifically claimed that they were stateless when they lodged their applications for international protection.
