The Government continues to at least give the appearance of dealing with some of the abuses which have given rise to concern over abuses of the asylum system.
Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, has welcomed the launch of a tendering process to procure chartered flights to carry people who have been issued with deportation orders out of the state. The announcement states that “Prospective service providers have until Wednesday 17th July 2024 to submit proposals.”
This would appear to be in clear response to the costs of individual deportations, as reported here last month on foot of information I was provided with. It is also perhaps an indication that the state is responding to the huge gap between the numbers of people issued with a deportation order and the small number who are actually escorted out of the state if they refuse to leave voluntarily.
A Freedom of Information request from a reader of Gript revealed that the total cost for the mere 112 “escorted deportations” carried out between the start of 2022 and May 3 had been €1,157,902.04. That amounts to an average cost per individual person deported of €10,338.41. Presumably, chartered flights carrying more than one person would considerably reduce costs.
In a media note attached to the Minister’s statement we are informed that so far this year – up to yesterday June 17 – 860 deportation orders have been issued. Within that same period, “over 295” persons have left the state through forced return, voluntary departure or otherwise.
The number of forced deportations has increased by 163% from a very low figure of 19 in the same period of 2023 to 50 so far in 2024. Likewise, the number of persons who have left voluntarily after being issued with a deportation order has risen from 97 to 227.
While any increase is to be welcomed, the actual numbers of deportation orders that do result in the person leaving the state has been small and on the face of these latest statistics would appear to remain small even if moving in the right direction.
While many if not most of those who left the state since the beginning of the year were most likely issued with an order prior to January 2024, the numbers of persons who have “departed the state under various mechanisms” only amounts to 34%, just over a third of the numbers of deportation orders that have been issued this year.
Credit where credit is due, however, and the numbers do seem to indicate that there has been a notable tightening up on this over the past year. As I reported here in March, the total number of deportation orders that were issued in 2023 was 1,060.
That represented a significant increase on the 600 orders that were issued in 2022. It should, however, also be borne in mind that in 2019 the total number of deportation orders signed was 2,297. What we are witnessing now, therefore, seems to be is a reversal of an ill conceived policy that was facilitated by the Covid relaxations but which has clearly been abused.
So it can be seen that the 860 orders signed so far in 2024 are not only on course to exceed the number for the whole of 2023 but are already above the 600 that were issued for the whole of 2022. It is important that these are enforced and any indication that greater rigour will be applied to this end is good news.
There has, of course, been a sharp increase in recent years in the number of people arriving in Ireland claiming asylum.
It is also noteworthy that the Department is now able to place a figure on the number of persons who have voluntarily left the state given that Minister McEntee on previous occasions, as reported by Gript, has said that they had no definite figures but that she believed that they were significant.
To what extent the current policy of the Department is indicative of a real determination to tackle abuse of the asylum system rather than a panicked response to huge public concern – reinforced by the June 7 election results – remains to be seen. For the moment, it does appear to be moving somewhat in the right direction.