The number of asylum seekers coming to Ireland has risen 72% compared to figures for the same period last year.
Figures from the Department of Integration show that up until March 28th a total of 5,163 asylum seekers arrived in Ireland, this compares to 2,995 claims for international protection over the same period in 2023.
The largest numbers came from Nigeria with 1,668 arrivals with the next largest group coming from Bangladesh with 416 arrivals.
The 4th, 5th, and 6th largest cohort came from Pakistan 400, Somalia 365, Afghanistan 243, and Zimbabwe 209.
104 applicants came from Botswana, and 108 from Georgia which were both recently declared a ‘safe county’ by Minister for Justice Helen McEntee.
Over 43 other countries were featured on the list of countries of origin.
A total of 13,277 applications for international protection were made last year.
Last month, Gript reported comments from outgoing Taoiseach Leo Varadkar who said that despite the government having previously announced that it was no longer in a position to offer state accommodation to single male asylum seekers “huge numbers” were still arriving in Ireland.
Speaking on Morning Ireland he said that last week saw “over 500” new claims made and that this was the largest figure for quite some time.
Responding to the figure of 1,103 men who the state has not provided accommodation for Varadkar said that unprecedented numbers were arriving in Ireland due to the “push factors” more so than “pull factors.”
“Because of the war in Ukraine, because of what’s happening in other parts of the world, because of conflict, governments collapsing, climate change, injustice, poverty, we have accepted over 100,000 people into our country in the past two or three years, providing accommodation for almost all of them.” he said.
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