The number of asylum-seekers gaining refugee status on appeal has risen considerably in recent months, as new Irish legal procedures start to take effect.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees said yesterday that in the first five months of the year 34 per cent of asylum-seekers were granted refugee status on appeal after they had originally been refused.
A Department of Justice spokesman agreed that the number of successful appeals had increased in the past six to eight weeks as new appeal procedures came into operation "in a major way". He also noted that asylum-seekers are now able to take advantage of free legal aid.
The Department's own figures show that in the first four months of the year 15 per cent of appeal cases by asylum-seekers - 103 out of 683 - were successful. The May figure was not available yesterday evening. In the whole of last year only 40 people were granted refugee status on appeal.
Since the Refugee Legal Service, run by the Legal Aid Board, came into operation three months ago, all asylum-seekers have been able to get free legal advice before going into the interviews which are the first stage of the asylum-seeking process. In recent weeks people taking appeals have also been able to avail of the service.
These recent changes partly explain the discrepancy between the UNHCR and Department of Justice figures. Another factor is that significant numbers of asylum-seekers, after filing for an appeal, do not present themselves at appeal hearings, for example because they have had an Irish-born child or have decided to leave the State and thus abandon their application.
Concern has been expressed by lawyers and others working with refugees at the large discrepancy between the very low numbers gaining refugee status at the first stage - estimated at under 10 per cent - and the much higher success rate at the appeal stage.
There is some unhappiness that the retired civil servants and gardai who have been brought in to conduct first-stage interviews are untrained in the law, are not sufficiently knowledgeable about the countries the asylum-seekers come from, and sometimes use inappropriately aggressive interviewing methods.
These are among the factors which have led the four lawyers acting as "appeal authorities" to reverse a significant and increasing number of first-stage decisions in recent months. They have also been rehearing most of the cases on appeal, rather than merely reviewing decisions made in the first stage.
The appeal authorities' decisions are still only recommendations to the Minister for Justice, but reliable sources say that until now they have been followed by the Department.
However, in some official circles there is a belief that more people who deserve refugee status under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, because they have a "well-founded fear" of persecution on racial, religious, political and other grounds, should be let in at the first stage. There is particular concern that women, children and victims of torture should be questioned in an appropriate and sensitive manner.
Lawyers dealing with asylum cases believe it may take several interviews - rather than the one which is standard at present - to allow an asylum-seeker to present his or her case properly. They also have concerns about the adequacy of the interpreting services available for people with poor English.