Asylum services cost state €206m in 2008 – but bill falling

THE cost to the state of delivering asylum services is expected to reach €206m for 2008 and less again for last year.

The Department of Justice has revealed that the out-turn for accommodation costs for the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) for 2008 is €91.47m.

It is expected that this will fall when the final 2009 figure is calculated to closer to €86.5m.

Regarding spending in the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS), the out-turn for 2008 stands at €65.9m, and a slight drop is expected for last year’s spend.

That means a drop of close to €100m in spending on asylum services when comparing costs for 2007 and 2008, although it is understood that the figures are being calculated in a different way, with more specific costings, meaning the actual drop could be less than the €100m on paper.

The new figures do mark a considerable reduction in the asylum bill from the middle of the past decade, when the €1.4 billion was spent between 2002 and 2005 on support services for asylum seekers.

The number of new applicants into the asylum and immigration services has been falling in recent years, but there is still a large number of people in the system. The backlog of unprocessed cases at the end of last year stood at 2,781 – almost the same as the 2,689 new applications made in 2009.

In addition, 3,910 applications were processed in 2009 and 12,473 substantive appeals were processed last year.

Meanwhile, the Immigrant Council of Ireland used International Women’s Day yesterday to argue that some migrant women are enduring a life here in Ireland that amounts to modern slavery.

The council’s chief executive, Denise Charlton, said: “It seems that our society is in denial about some of the realities facing migrant women in Ireland today.

“It is 10 years since the Government promised to review the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act and we are yet to see any real progress on providing protection to members of our community from abusive racial stereotyping.”

She added that the Government needed to introduce reforms to help these women, such as ensuring that migrant women living in this country as dependent spouses and experiencing domestic violence can access independent immigration status more easily.