Lenihan hails drop in asylum applications

Applications by asylum seekers to live in Ireland have dropped to the lowest level in ten years, the Government said today.

The Minister for Justice and Equality, Brian Lenihan, branded the cut a welcome result of official strategies to combat abuses of the system.

The Irish Refugee Council (IRC) said it was at odds with worldwide persecution levels and illustrated the increasing difficulty for people fleeing abuse to get into the country.

There were 3,985 people who applied for asylum in the State last year, according to the latest figures.

Another 776 people were either forced out of the Republic or voluntarily left after failing to secure asylum status.

Last year saw the lowest number of asylum applications since 1997 – a 66% decrease from 2002, the year the government has highlighted as a turning point.

“I welcome the continuing downward trend in asylum applications,” said Minister Lenihan.

He said it will allow the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) to focus more on visas, citizenship and other immigration functions.

But Robin Hanan, CEO of the IRC, said it was concerned about the new figures given the global increase in refugees.

“Every country in the world has an obligation to provide protection to someone who needs refuge and to assess them.

“Our problem is, as has become quite clear in the last couple of years, that the level of proof you need to actually win an asylum case in Ireland is unrealistically high.

“At the end of the day, people have a right to claim asylum.

“We would like to see a drop in the number of people seeking refuge if that means that the number of people being persecuted and needing to seek refuge has dropped, but we don’t think that’s the case.

“We think what’s happening is that it is becoming more difficult to get into the country.”

Asylum applications to Ireland rose dramatically from just 39 in 1992 to a high of 11,634 in 2002, roughly in line with the economic success of the country.

But the Government said there has been a significant turnaround in this trend since five years ago, with the numbers decreasing year on year since then.

There were 135 people deported to non-EU countries last year and another 225 sent to other European States through the so-called Dublin II Regulation transfer orders.

The orders allow Irish authorities to send asylum seekers back to an EU country they travelled through in order to reach Ireland.

Another 416 people, threatened with being thrown out of the State, asked to be helped make their way back home voluntarily.

That number was up significantly from 238 seeking assisted return in 2006.

Nigeria, Iraq, China, Pakistan and Georgia were the top five countries last year people were seeking asylum from in Ireland.

The previous year most applications were sourced from Nigeria, Sudan, Romania, Iraq and Iran.

Mr Hanan added: “The number of refugees in the world has gone up. At least 95% of refugees in the world are in developing countries, relatively few manage to get through to developed countries in order to claim asylum.

“Large numbers of people from countries like Iraq have been turned back.”