Despite the tents erected around Mount Street, and senior Cabinet members talking tougher on immigration, new figures show that the number of migrants arriving in Ireland seeking asylum have reached the highest weekly levels in over 20 years.
In the week to 17th March, a total of 479 people claiming asylum arrived in Ireland, an average of 68 arrivals per day. Some 1,382 people arrived in the three week period to that date.
A total of 4,085 asylum applicants have arrived in just 11 weeks since the beginning of the year – and if the trend continues the numbers could smash all previous records and see more than 19,000 additional migrants this year crowding into an accommodation system already creaking at the seams.
Previous record numbers set in January and February now look set to be broken again in March.
A total of 1,774 people seeking international protection came to the country in January, with officials in the Department of Justice confirming at that time that this was the highest monthly figure since 2001 and 2002. However, the numbers in March have now spiked again
The graph below from IPAS shows the extend of the surge in the number of people arriving weekly this year – up again on the unprecedented numbers arriving on a weekly basis in the past two years.
As is evident, the weekly arrivals in the most recent period for March outstrip even the highest numbers in the busiest weeks record-breaking arrivals recorded in 2022 and 2023
IPAS figures also showed that 149 of the people who arrived in the week to 17th March – or 31% of the total – were from Nigeria, while another 9% were from Bangladesh. Neither is a war-torn country.
Migrants claiming asylum also continue to arrive from Georgia, while arrivals from Palestine are now also growing in number.
Nigerians now make up almost 5,000 of the total of the number of people being accommodated by IPAS, with numbers from that country in state accommodation almost doubling since this time last year.
The table below shows that a large majority of those occupying accommodation while claiming asylum are not, in fact, from war-torn countries. The second largest number, totalling some 3,710 occupants, are from Georgia, now officially designated a safe country by the Irish government.
The number of people in IPAS accommodation have now soared to more than 28,000 – increasing by a factor of four since the end of 2020. This is happening at a time when 104,000 Ukrainians have also been granted refugee status – and when the number of homeless people living in Ireland is also increasing.
Despite the soaring numbers, the controversy over asylum claimants sleeping in tents, and widespread protests against the government’s handling of immigration, the authorities will not commit to a cap on the numbers arriving.
o
Loading ...