A response received by Rural Independent TD for Laois/Offaly Carol Nolan illustrates the huge number of deportation notices issued compared to the small number of those that progressed into deportation orders, few of which are enforced.
They also show that the number of orders issued have dropped dramatically despite the greatly increased numbers since the ending of the Covid restrictions.
That is despite the fact that Georgia and South Africa, which have accounted for 5,436 of the new applicants for International Protection between January 1, 2023, and the end of April this year, have been added to the list of “countries of safe origin.” Therefore, most persons from these countries have no valid grounds for being resident in the Irish state,
234 new applications from Georgia and 978 new applications from persons claiming to be from South Africa were accepted in the first four months of 2024.
In January Deputy Nolan had submitted a PQ asking the Department of Justice to supply “the number of notifications of intent to deport under Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended) from each year from 2001 to date.” She received a response from Minister Helen McEntee in a letter seen by Gript dated May 15.
The letter states that such records have only been maintained electronically since 2013. The table supplied shows that there were a total of 16,114 notices of intention to deport made between 2013 and the end of 2023.
Perhaps of most note is the fact that the number of deportation notices issued has fallen dramatically in the past four years. This despite the fact that the numbers of persons claiming International Protection has risen since the end of the Covid restrictions and continues to increase dramatically.
One would think that the number of deportations would increase in line with that given what we know of the large numbers of persons whose applications are rejected. Added to that is the fact that the state has clearly recognised the tenuous nature of the large number of applications from persons who have arrived here and continue to arrive here from countries designated as countries of safe origin. Many of the other leading “unsafe” countries of origin have high levels of initial rejection.
Yet the statistics show that while 8,566 notices to deport were issued between 2016 and the end of 2019, that just 2,752 have been issued in the four years since the beginning of 2020. That year coincided with the Covid panic and the fall in arrivals and the declaration by the state that it would effectively stop deportations on allegedly humanitarian grounds.
Thus, deportation notices fell from 1,949 in 2019 to 802 in 2020 and to just 561 in 2021. The thing is, however, that this trend has barely been reversed. There were just 605 notices issued in 2022 and 784 in 2023, which is a smaller number than the total of notices issued in 2020. What is the reason for this?
As we noted last week, other information that had been supplied by way of a Freedom of Information request from a Gript reader showed that there were just 78 “escorted deportation orders” carried out by the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) in the two years of 2022 and 2023.
The new information supplied to Carol Nolan shows that this represents just 5.61% of the 1,389 notices to deport that were issued in those two years. Not all notices to deport lead to actual deportation orders. As the Minister noted that the recipient of such a notice has the option of “voluntary return,” of consenting to be deported, or of appealing the notice which if successful leads to their being given “leave to remain.”
We have no idea at all of how many people leave voluntarily when faced with the prospect of being deported. Nor have we exact figures on the numbers who successfully appeal a deportation notice or order and are then given “leave to remain.”
We do know that a considerable number of persons who are or have been in IPAS accommodation are persons who have “leave to remain” rather than persons who have been or are likely to be granted asylum. Just this week, Minister Roderic O’Gorman stated that 1,400 people with leave to remain had left IPAS accommodation so far this year. Another 2,000 had done so in 2023.
We also know that of notices to deport, a relatively small number become actual deportation orders Between the start of 2018 and May 2023 there were 2,442 deportation orders issued. That compared to 6,750 notices to deport that were issued between the start of 2018 and the end of 2023.
Even accounting for the fact that our statistics on deportation orders cover 65 of the 72 months included in the statistics for deportation notices, it can be seen that around 40% of notices actually progress to becoming orders to deport.
And of those orders just 282 or 11.5% were effected between 2018 and May 2023, which would equate to around 5% of notices to deport. Which is pretty close to the % of GNIB “escorted” deportations made of the total number of orders to deport that were issued in 2022 and 2023.
Can we start referring to her as Saint Carol? She’s absolutely relentless when it comes to pursuing the government. More like herself and Mattie are needed.
These statistics analysed by Dr Treacy hint at one of the most disastrous characteristics of our asylum system – it is the whosesale abuse by Irish Justice minister of her power grant ‘leave to remain’ to failed asylum-seekers – even those who having failed the credibility test at every stage of the process, have finally been served with notice to deport.
This power, intended to be used sparingly in cases where exceptional circumstances apply, is being used wholesale to relieve and disguise the huge backlog of unfinalised applications, the huge backlog of cases awaiting hearing on the High Court Refugee JR list, and of course, the thousand of failed asylum applicants refusing to self-deport.
This disastrous practice re-enforces the well-founded perception that no one ever actually gets deported and eventually gets permission to remain by persostence and default. It is one of the major ‘pull-factors’ droving the huge increase in asylum-seekers – in particular, it makes Ireland an attractive asylum choice for chancers from safe countries.
This practice, necessitated by the gross underfunding of the asylum-adjudication process and the failure to plug its most notorious loopholes, seems set to continue indefinitely because, while our hapless Minister for Justice boasts that she has doubled the staffing in IPAT since she gave a general leave to failing asylum seekers to stay in April 2022 to clear the then hopeless backlog, the current rate of arrivals is now five-fold that in April 2022.
Every trafficker and their clients are well aware of these facts, and the inevitability of more general amnesties for bogus asylum-seekers just around the corner.
Deport the government then all illegal immigrants. Send all the Ukrainians home as well.
There is a saying about the greens fine gael bikes and fine gael minister for justice the worst in their party’s history. Since they went into government everything is gone free for all did the same when milk quotas went no plan about expansion the same with immigration when Coveney was quoted that the country would expand to 8 to 10 million people. Fine gael are the most Liberal free for all very little planning. They re no longer economic or planning prudent any more unlike their predecessors of cosgrave fitzgerald and bruton. They’ll bow to eu flag quicker than the try colour unlike their forefathers before. Michael Collins W t cosgrave must be turning in their graves
Helen’s entire tenure is only aimed at facilitating mass migration into Ireland. When a nationalist Government takes over, she’s heading to the gallows, along with O’Gorman
McEntee has no business in the Dáil and should not be there at all. Her one objective is to overpower Ireland with them. She stubbornly and obstinately refuses to deport, citing her ignorance in not knowing where they are. A minister with thst amount of ignorance, which is leading to our disaster must be given the boot. Her immigration policy is not to know where they are. Not to lift a finger to find out. Show us when that policy was decided on. She is out to destroy the Irish people. 5436 here from the safe countries of Georgia and South Africa. Think of all the accomodation and services these wasters are using up. And that’s only two countries. Get them out and let the Irish in. She wants nobody who arrives here, to leave. Anyone given a deportation order is given free legal aid to fight it. Corruption. Cut off their free legal aid. Cut off their welfare and get them out. There has to be a complete reversal of what’s happening now, to save Ireland. Do not vote for the gov or SF, they are out to do us. Their only interest is the foreigner, sneaking in his house on the back of a lorry in the dark of night, when they think we’re not looking. Show us the minutes of the meeting where they decided on that policy. Letting the elected away with that, means the situation will continue to deteriorate and Ireland will be gone. Get anti-immigration nationalists into power.
Another insightful article – thanks – and thanks, too, to Deputy Nolan.