€1.2m paid to asylum seekers’ lawyers

MORE than €1.2 million was paid out by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner (ORAC) to lawyers of asylum seekers suing the state for refusing to allow them to stay in the country.

The figures, contained in ORAC’s annual report say the payments were made in respect of “judicial reviews settled or lost” in 2010.

The organisation is the first-instance decision-making body in the Irish asylum system. Its job is to investigate applications from people seeking refugee status and to issue appropriate recommendations to the minister for justice.