ROMANIANS MADE up more than half of European citizens who were voluntarily repatriated to their country of origin from Ireland in the first 10 months of 2010, under a scheme to return destitute European nationals to their home country.
Up until October this year, 511 people were returned to 12 European accession states under the scheme, which is based on voluntary repatriations.
Of the 500-plus who were sent home in the first 10 months of this year, 288, or 56 per cent, were to Romania. Seventy people were repatriated to Poland, 55 to Latvia, 33 to Lithuania, 26 to the Czech Republic and 24 to Slovakia.
Other countries to which individuals were sent home voluntarily were Bulgaria, Hungary, Malta and Estonia. No one was repatriated to Slovenia or Cyprus up to the end of October 2010.
The EU repatriation scheme is run by the Reception and Integration Agency on behalf of the Government.
Its role in assisting in the return of destitute European citizens derives from a 2004 Government decision which directed the Department of Justice to support the return of destitute nationals from the 10 states which joined the European Union in May 2004. This was later extended to include Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU in January 2007.
The agency does not determine whether an EU citizen is destitute, but accepts referrals which are made up in the main by the asylum seeker and new communities unit of the Health Service Executive.
A Department of Justice spokeswoman said if “absolutely necessary, and subject to availability of accommodation”, the agency would accommodate individuals for one or two nights in one of its designated Dublin centres, and provide them with transport home as soon as practicable.
“The Reception and Integration Agency does not have responsibility for housing homeless non-Irish nationals – its accommodation role relates to asylum seekers, potential victims of trafficking and temporary accommodation for destitute EU 12 nationals wishing to return home,” she added.
Separately, 325 individuals were repatriated in the first 11 months of 2010 under a voluntary assisted return and reintegration programme run by the International Organisation for Migration in Dublin.
The intergovernmental body, which promotes international migration law and migrant rights protection, saw people returned to 38 countries under its voluntary return programme, including to Georgia, Moldova, South Africa, Brazil, Mauritius and Nigeria.
The number of repatriations under this scheme thus far in 2010 is down on recent years – 405 people were repatriated in 2009, and 452 in 2008. Since 2001, the organisation has assisted more than 2,600 people to return voluntarily to over 80 countries.
The programme is open to asylum seekers and vulnerable irregular migrants from non-European Economic Area countries. All beneficiaries are eligible for reintegration assistance upon arrival in their country of origin.