The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, today announced that unsuccessful applicants will also face quicker deportation under the new arrangements.
The new procedures will apply to nationals of priority asylum processing states Nigeria, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and South Africa. "Legislative and procedural changes which have been introduced over the past two years have contributed significantly to more efficient processing of asylum claims and tackling false and unfounded claims," Mr McDowell said.
"These new arrangements are aimed at further enhancing the asylum process and ensuring that those with unfounded asylum claims will be returned to their countries of origin much more quickly following a fair asylum determination process.
"Faster returns are fairer on the individual and are critical to the protection of the integrity of the asylum system." Mr McDowell said the new arrangements would result in a reduction in the number of unfounded claims and free up resources to the benefit of those with genuine protection needs.
The new arrangements will include the establishment of dedicated accommodation centres for applicants covered by the new arrangements.
This will allow speedier processing and serving of deportation orders, for example, such failed asylum applicants will be more readily available to the immigration authorities/Garda National Immigration Bureau while travel arrangements are being made for their return to their countries of origin.
The new arrangements for processing prioritised asylum applications will include faster processing at first instance in the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner (ORAC) with timescales reduced from six weeks to around three weeks and faster appeal determinations and processing times.
On average, 187 applications per month are received from nationals of the countries concerned. This represents some 47 per cent of total monthly applications.
Nigeria represents the highest source country of asylum applications in the State with approximately 37 per cent of all claims and 79 per cent of prioritised claims.
PA