The Minister for Justice yesterday sent a strong message to human traffickers and people abusing the asylum system that anyone who is not a genuine asylum-seeker would be deported.
Mr McDowell said the asylum system was being substantially abused, with more than 80 per cent of asylum applicants found not to be entitled to refugee status.
"That suggests that 80 per cent of asylum applicants are coming here for different reasons and they're mainly economic and we have to face up to that fact," he said.
Mr McDowell said the abuse of the asylum process by people trying to gain a foothold in the State for economic purposes tied up resources which could be used more effectively on initiatives for refugees.
Some €200 million was spent on services for asylum-seekers last year.
The Minister made his remarks following the launch yesterday of the first annual report of the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner, set up in November 2000.
The office has concluded more than 20,670 cases between then and the end of last month.
Its commissioner, Ms Berenice O'Neill, said the backlog of claims has been cut to 5,000 and the processing time for the first stage of applications is five months. The office's target by the end of this year was to process first stage applications within two to three months, she added.
Ms O'Neill said it was a matter of concern that about 40 per cent of asylum applicants withdraw from the process or fail to turn up for interview.
Asylum-seekers are people who seek to be allowed remain in Ireland permanently on the basis that they are fleeing persecution. Anyone who claims asylum must be admitted to the State while their case for refugee status is processed.
Speaking to journalists after he launched the report, Mr McDowell said the asylum determination system was "extremely fair" and was monitored by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Asked whether he was happy that the message would go out that people who were not genuine asylum-seekers would be deported, the Minister replied: "That is the fundamental position of our State and if any other message is out there I just want to emphasise that it is very much mistaken and will be seen to be such in the fullness of time.
"Those people who for profit exploit people who are would-be economic migrants and try to persuade them that Ireland is a place you can come pretending to be a refugee when you are in fact an economic migrant and have the distinction between the two ignored, those people are cheating people in those countries. I believe trafficking in human beings is a major violation of human rights and it is something which the Government and the other EU member-states' governments must concentrate on and address."
The first message to get across to traffickers was to create a clear public awareness that when they persuade people who are economic migrants to attempt the asylum-seeking route to get to Ireland they would meet with disappointment, he said.
The Minister stressed that the vast majority of foreigners in Ireland are people who have come to study or work legally.
The chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council, Mr Peter O'Mahony, acknowledged progress in the speed of processing decisions.
"We would have a concern however that more than half of some 700 people ultimately recognised on appeal as refugees in Ireland in the first four months of this year had been turned down by the Refugee Applications Commissioner's office," he added.