‘No reason’ for 11-year asylum decision delay

There is no clear reason why asylum seekers are having to wait up to 11 years in the State’s initial refugee reception system, according to an immigration expert.

Lecturer in law at University College Dublin, Liam Thornton, believes the direct provision system, which was envisaged would only last six months, is taking far too long to deal with the numbers of refugee applications it processes.

“There’s no clear reason, as far as I can see, why it takes such a long period, especially as we’ve had so few applications in the last six or seven years,” said Dr Thornton.