Calls have been made for the tightening of the asylum process after it was revealed that thousands of people are arriving without proper documentation.
Calls have been made for the tightening of the asylum process after it was revealed that thousands of people are arriving without proper documentation.
According to figures from the Department of Justice 5,074 came to Ireland with either no travel documents or fake travel documents last year alone.
Calling the situation “incredible” Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said that the government isn’t “cracking down” in terms of making the process stricter saying that steps have to be taken to ensure this “doesn’t happen in future,”
Tóibín’s comments came after Minister Joe O’Brien said that every asylum application needed to be “taken at face value” despite evidence that significant numbers of those arriving in Ireland are destroying their travel documents.
O’Brien claimed that he has “never met a migrant who’s come here based on checking what the welfare rates are,” over his 20 years experience in the migration area.
'I've never met a migrant who's come here based on checking what our welfare rates are.' Minister Joe O'Brien on @PatKennyNT. pic.twitter.com/dWWjPLEUQn
— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) May 25, 2023
Referring to the way in which failed asylum claims are handled Tóibín said, “We really need to get to grips with that element of the asylum process”, adding that the “end elements” were “mind boggling”.
Tóibín quoted figures from 2018 to 2022 which show that between those years 4631 deportation orders were issued to people who had “failed the asylum application process”.
He said that as of last year 3887 of those people who had received deportation orders had “not left the country” and that the government has “no understanding of where they were,”
Tóibín accused the government of ‘presiding over a voluntary deportation order system’ saying that this was “incredible given the pressure that we’re under,”
He questioned the logic of the current system saying that the end of the process was the same for both successful and unsuccessful applicants.
“The idea that those who are successful in their application for asylum and those who are not successful in their application for asylum would have exactly the same outcome, the end, ie that they can stay in the country. It’s just incredibly wrong,” he said, adding that millions were being spent on the differentiation process.
5,000 people came to Ireland last year seeking asylum without travel documents or on false documents.
The Government need to stop abuse of the system. pic.twitter.com/ie56GbL9X7
— Peadar Tóibín TD (@Toibin1) May 28, 2023
Tóibín said that in circumstances were large numbers of deportation orders do not result in failed asylum seekers leaving the country that the asylum processing system was “not actually differentiating an outcome for people in the long run as well,”
Speaking about the provision of asylum seeker accommodation, Tobín said that an answer to a parliamentary question stated that 146 hotels, guest houses and BnBs are currently being used by the government to accommodate asylum seekers.
Noting that 80% of locations being used to house migrants are in the hospitality sector with only 33 other locations in use, he said that “enormous pressure” was being put on a sector which provides livelihoods to 10s of thousands of people “especially in regional Ireland”.
“There are many downstream tourism businesses that are dependent on throughput of tourists in those areas,” he said.