Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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328. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of refugees that have been given advance clearance to relocate to Ireland, as programme refugees, under the family reunification, emergency medical aid offer or other such immigration criteria, in the past five years; and the countries whence they came, in tabular form. [38568/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Responsibility for the Irish Refugee Protection Programme (IRPP) and the subsequent responsibility for recognition and registration of Programme Refugees transferred from my Department to the Department of Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth on 14 October 2020.

The Irish Humanitarian Admission Programme (IHAP) was administered through my Department and ran from May 2018 until March 2019. This programme allowed holders of an international protection status in Ireland, (i.e. Persons with Refugee status or those awarded Subsidiary Protection), and Irish citizens to make a proposal to bring to the State their family members who are nationals of one of the top ten major source countries of refugees as identified by the UNHCR Annual Global Trends Report. Those were Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Myanmar, Eritrea and Burundi.

I can advise the Deputy in total, 823 persons were given permission to reside in the State under the IHAP.

In 2021, my Department opened the Afghan Admission Programme in response to the humanitarian situation in that country. This programme allowed anyone already resident in Ireland to apply to bring their close family members whose freedom or safety was at risk, whether they were resident in Afghanistan or in certain neighbouring countries having fled from Afghanistan.

To date approx. 900 people have been granted under the Programme.

Family reunification as provided for in Section 56 of the International Protection Act 2015, allows people granted International Protection to apply for certain family members to join them in the State. An application for family reunification must be made by the sponsor within 12 months of them being granted an International Protection permission and is subject to the provisions of the International Protection Act 2015. Any family member granted permission to join their family in Ireland under Section 56 is not granted Refugee Status. They are granted a long term residency immigration permission allowing them to legally reside in the State with their sponsor.

The table below gives the number of family members granted family reunification under Section 56 of the International Protection Act 2015 between 2019 to September 2024.

* to 25/09/2024

**Figures are correct at time of issue however all statistics may be subject to data cleansing.

Since 2019, the top five nationalities granted permission to remain in the State under Section 56 of the International Protection Act 2015 are nationals of Somalia, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Syrian Arab Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.