Recession blamed for fall in asylum seeker applications

THE recession was blamed for turning asylum seekers away from Ireland.

Asylum applications plummeted just under a third in the last year to 2,689, with the vast majority coming from Nigeria.

Figures from the Department of Justice show numbers have been dropping every year since the peak of 2002 when 11,634 sought refuge.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern praised immigration officials for their efforts in tackling abuse but added with many applicants coming here to find work, the dire economic conditions could explain the massive drop.

“I might add that information available to us also suggests that many asylum applicants are economic migrants,” the minister said.

“Therefore, it is possible that economic conditions in Ireland may have been a factor in the reduction in asylum application numbers in 2009.”

The figures also reveal the number of deportations of non-EU nationals living illegally in the country jumped 83% from 129 in 2008 to 236 last year.

According to the Department of Justice:

-Some 2,689 asylum applications were received last year representing a 30.5% drop on the figure of 3,866 in 2008, with 1,758 (65.4%) men and 931 (34.6%) women.

-The top five nationalities were Nigeria with 569 (21.1%), Pakistan (9.6%),China (7.2%), Democratic Republic of Congo (3.8%) and Zimbabwe (3.4%).

-While asylum application numbers reached a peak of 11,634 in 2002, the number of applications since has fallen continuously with the 2009 drop the third-largest in percentage terms.

-In addition to deportations, 243 applicants were transferred to other states, while 202 returned home voluntarily.

-Over the last decade, Nigerians were consistently the largest nationality for asylum applications, reaching a peak of nearly 40% of all applications in 2003.

Mr Ahern said Ireland experienced one of the largest falls in applications in the EU last year, with almost half of European countries experiencing an increase.

Fine Gael claimed the minister had failed to bring about reform of the asylum process with costs incurred by immigration services jumping 16% over the last year.

Denis Naughten, the party’s immigration and integration spokesman, said: “It seems that Justice Minister Dermot Ahern is determined to ignore the massive wastage of public money and not enforce cost saving measures.

“He has failed to make a serious impact in terms of asylum costs even when the number of new asylum applications has fallen significantly.”

Mr Naughten came up with a range of possible cost-saving measures, including requesting High Court judges sit for longer periods to clear the asylum backlog.

The Fine Gael TD said encouraging 15 judges to sit for an extra month would clear around 300 extra cases.

Mr Naughten also proposed reviewing both the contracts for asylum centres and the applications process.

“We need a determined approach to deal with the present mess and I’m calling on the Minister for Justice to prioritise this area in the interests of the taxpayer,” he said.