Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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16. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons facilitated in relocating to this country under the Afghan Admission Programme; the number of persons who have been accepted but are yet to be relocated; the number of persons refused participation in the programme; and the reason for the refusals. [36289/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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In response to the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, my Department remains focused on processing applications for family reunification made under all admission avenues, including the Afghan Admissions Programme for family members of Afghan nationals living in Ireland.

The Afghan Admissions Programme is an additional avenue open to the relatively small number of Afghan nationals living here to bring close family members to live here with them. There are of course a number of other options already in place through existing immigration programmes that have also been availed of by members of the Afghan community in Ireland since the beginning of August 2021 to 19 October 2022, a total of 140 join family visas have been approved for Afghan nationals and 94 family reunification applications have been approved and we continue to also process these applications sympathetically.

I can inform the Deputy that my Department has received 528 applications to the Afghan Admission Programme and while no application has yet been approved under this Programme, a significant number of Afghan people have also been allocated places under the Irish Refugee Protection Programme (IRPP), which is under the remit of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. My Department provides the visas to facilitate their travel to Ireland and almost 600 visa waiver letters have been issued to date.

I understand that this is a difficult situation for our Afghan community and their loved ones. I would also like to assure the Afghan community that applications under this Programme continue to be assessed in a pragmatic and humanitarian manner with a view to issuing decisions as soon as possible.

Considerable information was provided by my Department to assist proposers in Ireland filling out the application form for their family members. This included a detailed guidance document published in conjunction with the application form on 16 December 2021 and a Frequently Asked Questions document, drafted in light of queries received and published on 31 December 2021.

The guidance document also included a detailed checklist to assist proposers in ensuring that all of the requested information was provided.

The original closing date for the Programme was extended in consultation with civil society groups to allow proposers time to gather the required information and my Department continues to engage with these groups.

The information required to apply was to ensure that the Programme benefitted its intended beneficiaries, and that my Department was satisfied as to the identities of both the proposers and their family members coming to Ireland.

Where applicants are missing important information, such as proof of identity and familial relationships, my Department is contacting applicants directly to try to gather the required documents. This will help to ensure as many people as possible can avail of this important programme.