THE GOVERNMENT has made 14 positive recommendations to grant refugee status to asylum seekers this year out of 1,014 cases, new figures show. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) last night criticised the acceptance rates as “low” and said it would engage with the authorities.
The acceptance rate of 1.38 per cent, which was overseen by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner (ORAC), ranks Ireland at the bottom of the EU league for granting protection. It also continues a downward trend in giving refugee status to asylum seekers, with acceptance rates falling from 9 per cent in 2007.
The new figures, which are contained in ORAC’s most recent monthly statistics report, underline the findings of an EU-wide survey published recently by the EU statistics agency Eurostat.
This found Ireland made proportionately fewer positive decisions to give protection to asylum seekers than any EU country bar Greece in 2009. The Government’s rate of recognition for protection was 6 per cent, less than a quarter of both the EU average or that of Britain.
Acceptance rates at first instance are 4 per cent, while on appeal it gives recognition to 7.8 per cent of cases.
Britain had a recognition rate of 26.9 per cent, Germany 36.5 per cent and Denmark 47.9 per cent at first instance and all three countries had a higher rate of successful appeals. Greece recognised 1.2 per cent of asylum seekers in 2009, prompting Amnesty International to call on EU states not to send asylum seekers back to Greece under the Dublin Convention rule that asylum seekers’ claims must be considered in the first EU state that they arrive in.
The new figures on recognition prompted the UNHCR office in Ireland to issue a statement on the state of the asylum system.
“In an EU context, UNHCR’s latest research has shown that there is an uneven examination of asylum claims across the member states. The variations in the asylum decisionmaking processes are not affording asylum seekers the same opportunity to access protection wherever in the EU they lodge their claim and this is of serious concern to UNHCR.
“The office is engaging with the Government authorities in order to further understand the contributory factors behind the current rates,” said the agency.
The Department of Justice said last night the Irish asylum system compared with the best in the world “in terms of fairness, decisionmaking, determination structures and support services for asylum seekers”.
It said it was determined to address the high level of abuse of the asylum process by people seeking to gain entry to the State for purposes other than protection.