The national asylum appeals tribunal has said that applications for asylum continued at a “unprecedented level” in 2024 with 22,548 pending applications at the end of the year – while they expect an overall caseload of 25,000 appeals of refusals for asylum applications for 2025.
The 2024 Annual Report from International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT) said that the number of appeals to their office of decisions by the International Protection Office to refuse asylum to an applicant increased by 650% over a 24-month period.
IPAT also said that processing times for all asylum appeals had now risen to 10 months, because of that increase in appeals reaching the Tribunal over the past 24 months, and because resources not being in place early enough to meet that subsequent demand.
The report showed that just 28% of all the appeals were successful in 2024 – meaning that the refusal to grant asylum was upheld in 72% of cases that had been appealed.
“In 2024, the number of applications for international protection continued to be at an unprecedented level, with 18,561 applications lodged at the International Protection Office, resulting in a caseload of 22,548 pending applications for international protection at the end of the year, ” IPAT said.
“Based on past experience, it can therefore be expected that in addition to the 9,705 appeals that were pending before the International Protection Appeals Tribunal at the end of 2024, upwards of 16,000 appeals may reach the Tribunal in 2025, resulting in an estimated overall caseload of 25,000 for the year ahead.”
“As a result of the continuing upward trend of international protection applications being made in Ireland, the number of appeals reaching the Tribunal increased by another 85% to 8,835 new appeals in 2024, compared to 4,775 having been submitted in the previous year. This constitutes an increase of near 650% over a 24 months period,” IPAT’s Annual Report said.
IPAT reviews appeals from individuals whose applications for asylum have been refused by the International Protection Office (IPO). In February of this year, Minister Jim O’Callaghan said that 65% of the 14,000 applications made to the IPO were rejected – adding that 80% of applications for asylum were rejected by the IPO in January.
Chair of IPAT, Hilkka Bekker said that IPAT had maximised the use of its resources to meet the pressure of a significant increase in appeals. The Tribunal “exceeded its projected output of completed appeals in 2024 to a total of 3,098, an increase of over 82% from 1,701 completed appeals in 2023 and that, for appeals submitted and decided in 2024, the median processing times increased only marginally, to 6 months,” she said.
“However,” she added, “it must be noted that the overall processing times for all appeals has now risen to 10 months, a development that has resulted from the combination of a near 650% increase in appeals reaching the Tribunal over the past 24 months and resources not being in place early enough to meet the resulting demand.”
The IPAT reported that “while further efficiency increases did enable the Tribunal to deliver 3,098 completed appeals – an increase of 82% over the previous year – it is of concern that despite the best effort being made with the resources available to it, the Tribunal closed the year with 9,705 appeals on hand.”
When an initial asylum application is rejected, the applicant can appeal to IPAT within 10 days, often with the assistance of migrant right organisations including Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI), Doras, and Nasc who can offer legal assistance and other supports.
Responding to the figures, Independent TD Mattie McGrath said that it was glaringly evident that Ireland’s asylum system was being completely “overwhelmed” – and that the “promises and tough talk from the government regarding deportations and processing amounted to nothing.”
EU TREND
IPAT said that, in contrast to 2023, the trend being seen in IPAS “is not reflected throughout the EU+, where applications for international protection decreased by over one tenth, remaining below the 2023 figures overall.
“However, at the end of 2024, there was a near-record number of cases awaiting a first instance decision across the EU+,” the report said.
IPAT said that it “remains committed to maintaining the high quality of its decision-making, with the rate of judicial review challenges against its decisions remaining steadily below 7%. Moreover, 2025 will see the very welcome appointment of additional part-time and whole-time Tribunal Members, as well as the provision of legal researchers to the Tribunal to increase its research and knowledge management capacity.”
Taxpayer-funded expenditure for IPAT in 2024 came to almost €6 million, with salaries and wages amounting to some €3.5 million, and some €163,000 spent on translation and interpretation services,
