Ireland has strictest asylum seeker regime
Figures from the European Commission show that Ireland has continued to tighten up procedures for giving undocumented immigrants refugees status over the past 12 months.
Just 25 out of 1,600 asylum seekers received a positive outcome to their application for refugees status or other form of humanitarian protection in 2010 from the Office of Refugee Applications Commissioner.
It equates to a rate of just 1.6% — down from 4% in 2009 and well below the EU average of 24.8%.
The results also mean that Ireland has overtaken Greece as the EU member state with the most restrictive approach to granting asylum.
Although Ireland accounted for just 0.7% of all decisions on asylum applications last year, it is responsible for just 0.04% of those who were granted asylum.
The latest data is likely to confirm observations by immigrant support groups that Ireland has adopted a more conservative approach to the granting of asylum that any other EU country.
Any first-time applicant refused asylum is entitled to appeal to the Refugee Appeals Tribunal which itself has a refusal rate in about 90% of cases.
The tribunal has also been dogged by controversy over its high refusal rate and lack of transparency about its procedures and decisions. Some members of the RAT have resigned for principled reasons.
Former Supreme Court judge and current president of the Law Reform Commission, Ms Justice Catherine McGuinness, recently expressed concern about the lack of transparency in our immigration and asylum system.
Ms Justice McGuinness said the high refusal rate has also resulted in the courts being burdened with hundreds of appeals as applicants had no option but to seek a judicial review of their case.
Last year, a total of 1,940 people applied for asylum in the Republic — a rate of 435 per one million inhabitants, which is just below the EU average.
Nigeria is the single biggest country of origin of asylum seekers in the Republic, accounting for 20% of all applications, followed by China (12%) and Pakistan (10%).
Overall, there were 257,800 applications for asylum across the EU in 2010 — a reduction of 6,200 on the previous year’s figures — with around 90% coming from new arrivals.
Afghanistan accounted for 8% of the total followed by Russia and Serbia (both 7%), and Iraq and Somalia (both 6%).
France was the EU country with the highest number of applicants at 51,600 followed by Germany (48,500) and Sweden (31,900).
Ten EU member states — France, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, Greece, Italy and Poland — account for 90% of all registered asylum seekers.
On average, 12% of applicants were granted refugee status, with a further 12% granted some other form of subsidiary or humanitarian protection.
