€83m bill to process 6,900 asylum applications

NEARLY 7,000 asylum seekers are currently living in direct provision accommodation, costing the taxpayer more than €83 million in 2007 alone.

Latest figures from the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) reveal just how long the asylum process is taking and how much it is costing the State.

According to the RIA, at October 31, 6,900 asylum seekers are living in 59 centres located across 22 counties. The cost to the state for the provision of such accommodation in 2007 was €83,262,000.

This expenditure included such services as pre-school services, utilities (including gas etc), transporting asylum seekers throughout the country under the system of dispersal, and miscellaneous amounts such as the payment for nappies and funeral expenses.

There have been 1,865 people waiting for more than three years — without being allowed to work, and living on €19.10 a week — to have their refugee application processed.

Another 1,364 people have been waiting for between two and three years, and 1,594 between 12 and 24 months.

Denis Naughton, Fine Gael immigration and integration spokesman, said the current process was taking far too long.

He said he was aware of people who had been waiting up to eight years for a final decision.

Mr Naughton said he has been trying to seek clarification from the Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern on how many staff work on processing the applications.

“In October 2007, there was one in five posts in that area vacant, and to date I have received no evidence that they were filled. It defies logic,” he said.

Mr Naughton said the cost to the taxpayer was grossly unfair, and the system was completely unjust for applicants.

Aki Stavrou, director of Integrating Ireland, said the process has speeded up “significantly” in the past year. But, he said, for those who are granted leave to remain, many more problems emerge.

Mr Stavrou said the Government could not keep people in, release them and expect them to stand alone with out difficulties.

“Living in direct provision institutionalises people and this will create long-term problems,” he said.

“The lack of integration means they can forget how to live in society.”

“When you have been reliant on the state for so long for everything it becomes difficult.”

Dr Bernard Ruane, a Tralee-based GP who works with asylum seekers, said that 90% of them are suffering from depression and other mental illnesses as a direct result of the situation they find themselves in.

Dr Ruane said the main cause of their depression was idleness, because they are not allowed to work.

Ireland is the only member country of the European Union that does not allow asylum seekers to work after a certain length of time.