Written answers
Thursday, 29 March 2007
Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform
Refugee Status
7:00 pm
Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 132: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of applications for refugee status in the past two years; the number refused, granted or pending; the number of appeals against decisions of the Refugee Applications Commissioner where the original decision was upheld, overturned or pending; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12221/07]
Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The information requested by the Deputy is set out in tabular format as follows.
| Table 1: The number of asylum applications received by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and details of those granted and refused at first instance. | |||
| Year | No. of Asylum ApplicationsReceived | No. of Recommendations to grant refugee status (at first instance) | Asylum Applications Refused (at first instance)* |
| 2005 | 4,323 | 455 | 4,787 |
| 2006 | 4,314 | 397 | 3,847 |
| 2007 (28/02) | 717 | 72 | 535 |
| * Figure in this column can contain applications received in previous year. |
| Table 2: The number of appeals of first instance recommendations made to the Refugee Appeals Tribunal where the first instance recommendation was affirmed and details of the number of appeals resulting in the granting of refugee status | ||
| Year | Appeals processed to decision where the first instance recommendation of ORAC was affirmed | No. of appeals upheld (granted refugee status) |
| 2005 | 3,406 | 511 |
| 2006 | 1,615 | 251 |
| 2007 (28/02) | 234 | 15 |
| Table 3: The number of cases pending at the end of each year in each of the organisations and the number of cases pending for over 6 months at the end of each year. | ||||
| Year | ORAC — Cases pending at year end | RAT — Cases pending at year end | Cases pending for more than six months in each agency (combined) | Total cases pending at year end |
| 2005 | 1,169 | 1,235* | 433 | 2,404 |
| 2006 | 924 | 2,500 | 1,297 | 3,424 |
| 2007 (28/02) | 999 | 2,761 | 1,601 | 3,760 |
| *This figure is a decrease of 32 in comparison with the figure of 1267 stated in the reply to Question No. 159 of 27 April 2006. This variation arises as a result of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal updating their statistics. |
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