THE GOVERNMENT is exploring the possibility of applying biometric technology to visa applications from Pakistan in an effort to crack down on “sham marriages” in Ireland.
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said yesterday the high number of residency applications marriages between Pakistanis and EU citizens from the Baltic states was a concern. He had asked his officials to examine as “a matter of urgency” the possibility of the deployment of biometric technology to all visa applications from Pakistan.
There were 1,894 applications for residency based on marriage to an EU citizen in 2010. Some 378 of these applications were made by Pakistanis, 172 were to Latvians and 39 to Lithuanians.
Under the EU free movement directive, non-EU nationals are entitled to residency in Ireland if they are married to an EU citizen from another EU state.
The Department of Justice has said the unusually high number of marriages between Pakistanis and Latvians demonstrates an ongoing trade in sham marriages.
The department plans to roll out biometric technology at its Pakistan embassy to take electronic fingerprints of all Pakistanis applying for visas. It hopes this data will enable it to undertake more thorough checks on individuals’ immigration history and prevent people from staying in Ireland illegally while they search for an EU citizen to marry.
The department uses a similar biometric system in Nigeria.
Mr Ahern said the number of people applying for residency on the basis of marriage to an EU citizen is now similar to the number of people claiming asylum.
The number of people claiming asylum fell 27.9 per cent to 1,939 last year - the eighth successive year that claims for refugee status in Ireland have decreased.
A fifth of all asylum claims were made by Nigerians. Chinese and Pakistanis were the second and third-highest asylum applicants, accounting for 11.8 per cent and 10.3 per cent of all applications.
Some 65 per cent of the asylum applicants were men, while 35 per cent were women, which broadly followed claims of previous years.
Asylum claims peaked in 2002 when there were 11,634 applications. Since then the numbers of people claiming asylum in the Republic have fallen every year.
Mr Ahern said yesterday the sharp fall in asylum claims reflected the successful strategies aimed at combating abuses of the system. He said streamlining of processing arrangements in the asylum area was also having an impact.
Ireland deported 247 people to non-EU countries last year - a 4 per cent increase in the number of deportation orders effected compared to 2009. However, the Government managed to effect just 30 per cent of the deportation orders signed by the Minister in 2010.
Some 142 people were transferred to other EU states to have their asylum claims heard in the first European country that they made a claim. An additional 183 failed asylum seekers, who would otherwise have been removed from the State by the authorities through deportation, agreed to return voluntarily to their homes.