Minister to introduce`fast-track' procedures for clearing backlog of asylum applications

The Minister for Justice is to introduce new "fast-track" procedures for clearing the backlog of 4,000 asylum applications by the middle of next year. Decisions on whether to grant asylum or not will be made by a group of officials in Mr O'Donoghue's Department, as plans for an independent body to handle asylum applications are to be scrapped, The Irish Times has learned.

The changes raise the prospect that large numbers of asylum-seekers may be forced to leave the State next year.

The director of the Irish Refugee Council, Ms Nadette Foley, said the new procedures would leave Ireland as the only EU state without a statutory basis for dealing with refugees. She was also worried about the safeguards to protect asylum-seekers from being sent back to face persecution.

Mr O'Donoghue told the Dail yesterday he was getting rid of the 1985 procedures under which a United Nations agency was consulted in every asylum case. In future, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees will have the right to inspect cases, but will not be automatically involved.

The Minister said the old procedures were "no longer workable" because of the huge increase in the numbers applying.

The UNHCR representative for Britain and Ireland, Ms Hope Hanlan, agreed that the increased numbers made it impossible for UNHCR to look at every case.

The Irish Times has learned that the Minister intends to abandon plans for an independent body to handle applications, contained in the 1996 Refugee Act introduced by the last government.

It is understood new procedures for providing legal aid for asylumseekers are also being finalised.

The effect of the changes will be to speed up the processing of asylum cases; at the moment, most asylum-seekers have to wait more than two years to have their cases heard. The backlog has led to complaints from backbench Fianna Fail TDs about the £50 million bill for paying supplementary welfare allowance to asylum-seekers.

Mr O'Donoghue also confirmed yesterday that the first large-scale deportations of unsuccessful applicants are imminent. Some 23 people would be asked to leave the State on foot of a Supreme Court judgment earlier this week and it was expected other cases would also be affected by the decision.

But a further group of asylumseekers whose appeals have been rejected are also facing deportation. Amnesty International warned last night that if sent back to their home countries, they could be at risk of imprisonment, torture or death. It criticised the Department of Justice for failing to give them a "fair, independent" hearing.

"The entire asylum procedure was set up in secret by the Department. Each claim was first heard by a Department official and then refused. The appeal was set up without any public or parliamentary debate and then administered by the Department under their private rules," said Ms Mary Lawlor, director of Amnesty's Irish section.

In the Dail, Mr O'Donoghue said a new £2.5 million centre for handling asylum cases would be ready in early 1998. The procedures would follow "as far as practicable" the philosophy set out in the 1996 Refugee Act.

The latest figures show that the number of asylum-seekers coming here is falling. Numbers fell from 454 in June to 326 in September and 241 last month.