Asylum seeker refusals on course to double as deportations rise to 286 in first six months of 2016

More asylum seekers have been deported from Ireland in the first half of this year than the total number deported in 2015, new figures reveal.

Serious concerns have been expressed by the Irish Refugee Council (IRC) as it has also emerged that the number of asylum seekers given permission to stay in Ireland on humanitarian grounds has fallen sharply this year.

The IRC said that these numbers show Ireland is becoming “less caring” in the context of the escalating migrant crisis in the Mediterranean. The numbers are in sharp contrast to promises made by the Government to accept more than 4,000 migrants escaping the conflict in Syria.