More non-nationals being turned away at ports and airports before they could claim asylum was one of the main reasons the number of asylum applications fell last year, the Irish Refugee Council said yesterday, writes Christine Newman.
Figures confirmed by the Department of Justice showed that the number of applications fell by 32 per cent in 2003 compared with the previous year. In 2002 there were 11,634 applications which decreased to 7,939 in 2003.
There was also a two-thirds drop in the numbers from October to the end of last year compared with the same period in 2002. Last year, in that period, there was a drop of 1,984 applications from 3,222 in the same period in 2002.
A Department spokesman said yesterday that the drop was due in part to the Supreme Court decision denying non-national parents of Irish-born children the right to live in the State by virtue of having an Irish-born child. He said other factors were new immigration laws and rent allowance changes.
However, the chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council, Mr Peter O'Mahony, said there was an element of the Supreme Court judgment involved but it was not the main reason.
"I don't think it is the principal reason. The maternity hospitals have said that the number of non-national women presenting at a late stage in pregnancy has not changed. These would be a group of women who had been in the habit of claiming asylum but the difference now is that some are not using the asylum system," he said.
Mr O'Mahony said that over 4,000 people were turned away at ports and airports each year in 2002 and 2003. He said they were deported immediately or after spending time in prison. In some cases it may be legitimate but there was little documentation and no independent witnesses at the ports and airports to monitor the situation, he said.