Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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194. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the details of deportation orders issued, by country of origin, by country of deportation to; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3745/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department that a Deportation Order requires a person to remove themselves from the State and it is only where they fail to do so that the State is forced to remove them and enforce the rule of law. The process leading to deportation is extensive with many avenues of appeal, including judicial review in the High Court, open to persons subject to Deportation Orders. Therefore not all Deportation Orders issued will have been enforced and so there is no corresponding figure for 'country of deportation to' in the table below for 2015 in respect of those Orders not yet enforced. In addition, many of the people concerned will claim to be from a particular country of origin and be classified as such on our system but will ultimately be determined to originate from another country.

In determining whether to make a Deportation Order, I must have regard to the factors set out in Section 3 (6) of the Immigration Act, 1999, as amended, and Section 5 (Prohibition of Refoulement) of the Refugee Act, 1996, as amended, as well as any other relevant statutory provisions, Constitutional or international human rights arising.

This essentially means that the safety of returning a person, or refoulement as it is commonly referred to, is fully considered in every case when deciding whether or not to make a Deportation Order i.e. that a person shall not be expelled from the State or returned in any manner whatsoever to a State where the life or freedom of that person would be threatened on account of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

It should be noted that although a Deportation Order may be issued to a person of a certain nationality, that person will have been given the option of leaving the State in advance of the Deportation Order being made Order and moving to another Member State or country other than their country of origin. Such persons are required to notify INIS when they take this course of action but many fail to do so. There are no reliable statistics to indicate how regularly this occurs.

With regard to the information in the table, a further disaggregation of the numbers by nationality is not provided because I do not wish to risk potential identification of any individuals involved.

Deportations Signed in 2015 by Nationality

Nationality	Number
China (Including Hong Kong)	109
Pakistan	95
Nigeria	49
Sudan	36
Brazil	33
Afghanistan	28
Albania	23
Mauritius	26
Congo, The Democratic Republic Of The	26
Somalia	26
Zimbabwe	20
Algeria	20
Georgia	19
Iran (Islamic Republic Of)	18
Ukraine	15
Bangladesh	12
India	15
Malaysia	13
Moldova, Republic Of	14
Viet Nam	12
Iraq	11
Palestinian Territory, Occupied	10
Turkey	10
Egypt	9
Mongolia	9
Philippines	9
South Africa	7
Malawi	7
Benin	6
Ghana	5
Kosovo / UNSCR 1244	6
Nepal	5
Others	63
Total	766