The number of asylum seekers arriving in Ireland from Jordan has surged by more than 1800 per cent in the last 12 months, new statistics from the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) show.
It is a huge increase on figures from July 2023 – when there were 53 Jordanian asylum seekers in Ireland. This number has now jumped to 1,021, the figures released this week show.
There were a total of 134 people from Jordan seeking International Protection in the State in the week ending 14th July – making Jordan the most common country of origin by far. Palestine was the country with the second highest numbers, with 24 Palestinians claiming protection here.
Meanwhile, 86 asylum seekers from Jordan arrived here last week, while Palestine was again the country with the second highest number of arrivals at 26. Nigeria was the third most popular country of origin (23 people), along with Somalia (23), Pakistan (21).
13 asylum seekers came from Bangladesh, 12 from Afghanistan, 10 from Iran, 10 from Zimbabwe, 8 from Georgia, while 53 were from other countries.
The increase in Jordanians seeking protection means that Jordan has gone from being the 40th most popular country of those seeking international protection to now being in the top ten.
The Department of Justice, responding to a request for comment, said:
“Migration patterns can shift and change, and the Government’s response adapts accordingly to maintain the integrity and efficiency of its immigration systems. These patterns, and the Government’s response to them, are kept under continual review.
“Minister McEntee has significantly increased investment in the international protection system, resulting in a significant increase in processing capacity and the introduction of accelerated processing. She has doubled the staff in the international Protection Office, which has trebled the number of decisions issuing from the IPO.
“Processing international protection applications quickly means those who need our protection are given the opportunity to re-build their life in Ireland in a timely manner. It also means that those who do not qualify, return to their country of origin.”
Meanwhile, there were 31,220 people in the IPAS system this week. There were 285 people who arrived in Ireland claiming asylum last week (week ending 21st July), an average of 41 arrivals per day.
The figures for the week ending 21st July show that the highest proportion of arrivals were single males – 42 per cent – or 121 arrivals.
There were 39 single females (14 per cent of arrivals), followed by 50 couples (18 per cent), 65 children (23 per cent) and 10 lone parents (3 per cent).
IPAS occupancy rates have exploded in recent years – increasing from 7,244 people in IPAS accommodation in 2021, to 19,104 in 2022. This surged again to 26,279 in 2023. There are now 31,220 people recorded in the system, an increase of 4,941 in the last 12 months.
Figures from the European Commission indicate that Jordan is the country with the most Palestinian refugees; it has over 2 million Palestinian refugees, although most have gained full Jordanian citizenship. With almost 2.4 million Palestinian refugees registered in Jordan, this number represents nearly half the total of all Palestinian refugees.
In April, one Jordanian refugee told The Times newspaper that he had moved to Dublin from Birmingham in the UK because he feared being deported due to the UK government’s Rwanda plan. The 24-year-old refugee said he made his way to Belfast, travelling from there to Dublin, where he lived in a tent outside the International Protection Office on Mount Street.
He told the British newspaper that after spending four months in England, he deliberated between Ireland or France, concluding that Dublin “was his best destination.”
“I didn’t want to go to Rwanda. I changed my place [Jordan] because I had a problem with the government and a problem with my religion … The life is hard in Jordan. If they sent me to Rwanda, that would be very bad. They don’t want to send me outside the country [in Dublin] to Africa or reject my case. They respect my case in Dublin,” Tbishat said., adding that he hoped to enrol in an IT course in college in Ireland.