Sir, – Nick Henderson exhorts politicians to look at the facts and to be aware of the global context in relation to the current debate on asylum (Letters, August 23rd).
The European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) reported in May that Ireland had received the most asylum seekers per capita than any of the other EU members states plus Switzerland and Norway. Your letter writer tells us that it is more appropriate to use the European Economic Area (the EU 27 plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) as the guideline because, on that basis, Iceland comes out ahead. However, in the interests of providing context, it might also be useful to add the fact that Iceland received 165 applications for asylum in June, down from 180 in May. For the past 10, years Iceland has averaged a per month total of around 130. In Ireland, there were 2,000 applications in May and 1,400 in June and at the end of July, and the overall total has now risen to 12,300.
Without dwelling too long on facts and figures but to put matters in perspective and within a longer time frame, while Ireland’s percentage of EU asylum applications in 2022 stood at 1.5 per cent, the numbers had risen to almost 15,000. This represented a 400 per cent increase over 2021 compared to an EU average increase of 64 per cent. Arising from that, there are now over 30,000 people living in direct provision and 23,000 asylum applications awaiting a decision.
If around half of these applications are deemed inadmissible, then surely there must be a significant element of economic migration at play. Until the NGO community, public bodies, politicians and the Government fully accept that fact and collaborate to devise a fair and reasonable plan to deal with it, then genuine asylum seekers will remain living on our streets. – Yours, etc,
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MARTIN McDONALD,
Dublin 12.
A chara, – While Nick Henderson of the Irish Refugee Council goes to great lengths to nit-pick details in Michael McDowell’s opinion piece (“Ireland is in no position to accept 25,000 homeless migrants claiming asylum every year”, Opinion & Analysis, August 21st), he manages to completely ignore the core argument: that the present situation is unsustainable. – Is mise,
DAVE SLATER,
Kilkea,
Co Kildare.
Sir, – The International Protection Office July statistics make for interesting reading in that applications awaiting interview are over 23,000 with a median processing time of 18 months at this stage. Given that there are also 6,000 appeals to the International Protection Appeals Tribunal on hand, the question arises as to how will a 90-day processing time be achieved when the State joins the EU migration pact in two years.
Realistically, a mass amnesty for all in the asylum process is the only realistic option, which will bring more housing, legal and social cohesion difficulties as increased numbers head our way on foot of it. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL FLYNN,
Dublin 13.