Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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845. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if she will provide the gender and age breakdown of refugees and asylum seekers arriving in Ireland in each of the past five years; the number of refugees and asylum seekers who arrived in the country without a passport; the number of these who arrived through airports; and the steps her Department has taken with refugees and asylum seekers who have no passport or travel documents. [54347/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The information sought by the Deputy with regard to the breakdown of cases by gender and age (whether the person is an adult or a minor) can be found in the attached tables. This is based on the age of the applicant at the reference period sought. 

As the Deputy will appreciate, the State has a duty to protect its borders and to ensure that all arriving passengers are entitled to enter the State. This is a fundamental exercise of State sovereignty, which is necessary to protect the security of the State and to prevent illegal immigration. The exercise of powers in this area is at all times subject to the law and to respect for individual rights.

The Border Management Unit (BMU) of my Department has responsibility for frontline immigration duties at Dublin Airport only. Other ports of entry are the responsibility of the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB), including the border with Northern Ireland.

Immigration officials conduct passport checks on arrival to ensure passengers are properly documented in accordance with Section 11 of the Immigration Act 2004. If a person indicates or is identified as being in need of international protection, they are admitted to the international protection process.

I can inform the Deputy that in the first nine months of this year, 3,705 people arrived undocumented in Dublin airport. While these passengers should have presented documents at their point of departure, they were no longer in possession of those documents when they reached the immigration desks at Dublin airport.

In the first nine months of 2022 out of a total of 5,662 persons refused leave to land, 4,969 persons indicated an intention to claim asylum to the Border Management Unit in Dublin airport. This figure includes those who may have had valid documentation.  The IPO does not collate statistics relating to applications for international protection based on whether such applicants were refused leave to land or whether a person had valid documentation upon arrival at a port of entry.  

Furthermore, based on subsequent investigations to establish passenger identity, it is clear that a proportion of undocumented arrivals who claim asylum upon arrival in Ireland hold status in another member state and are likely to have travelled here on a convention travel document.

On 18 July 2022, the Government decided to temporarily suspend Ireland’s participation in the Council of Europe Agreement for the Abolition of Visas for Refugees. The temporary suspension came into operation from noon on 19 July 2022. At the same time, a revised Visa Order was introduced to require visa required refugees travelling to Ireland from participating Member States to have an Irish visa. It is too early to determine the impact of the suspension on application numbers.  However, this will be closely monitored by the Department in the coming months.

This is not a decision that the Government has taken lightly. We are committed to upholding our international and EU obligations towards international protection applicants and refugees. However, where there is evidence that there may be exploitation within such systems, the Government must act swiftly to mitigate the risks, both to maintain the integrity of our immigration and international protection systems and to uphold public confidence in those systems.

My Department is examining the factors which may have contributed to the significant increase in applications for international protection and will continue to take all necessary steps to manage the international protection process efficiently and effectively, as part of the broader whole of Government response.

https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/debates/questions/supportingDocumentation/2022-11-08_pq845-8-11-22_en.docx">Refugees and Asylum Seekers