Drop in asylum applications reported

The number of asylum-seekers coming to Ireland so far this year has dropped by more than one-third over last year, according to new figures.

Some 1,256 applications were received in the first three months of the year, compared to 2,818 in the same period in 2003. However, the latest figure is 1 per cent up on the 1,238 applications received in the last three months of 2003.

The fall in Irish applications is in line with a wider trend that has seen a sharp fall in asylum-seekers travelling to industrialised countries, according to the figures from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

In Europe, the number of new asylum-seekers fell by 18 per cent. For the first time, the quarterly number of people making asylum claims in western countries has fallen below 100,000.

France is now the recipient of the largest number of claims, at more than 15,000 last year, followed by Germany and the UK. The US received fewer than 10,000 applications last year.

The largest country of origin for asylum applications in Europe is Russia (mostly Chechens), followed by Serbia, Turkey, Iraq and China.

In Ireland, however, Nigerians continue to account for the largest number of new asylum-seekers, with 490 applications. There were 59 applications from both Romania and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and 43 from Somalia. Nigeria and Romania have consistently accounted for the majority of applications in Ireland over the past five years.

Other significant source countries for asylum-seekers coming to Ireland are Sudan, China, Georgia, Moldova, Ghana and Zimbabwe.

The UNHCR says that, while applications from most countries in the west is falling, the level of Nigerian claims has remained stable. As a result, Nigeria is now the fifth-largest source of applications, from 10th in the last quarter of 2003.

The Labour TD Mr Joe Costello said the figures "seriously undermined alarmist claims made about unsustainable number of asylum applicants flooding the country".

He said the figures also raised serious questions about one of the key reasons offered by the Minister for Justice to justify the Government-proposed amendment on citizenship.

"In the original briefing material produced by Minister McDowell he claimed that almost 60 per cent of female asylum-seekers aged over 16 were pregnant when arriving in this country," Mr Costello said.

"It is clear, given the dramatic fall in the number of asylum applications, that there must have been a corresponding reduction in the number of such applicants who were pregnant."

Last year Ireland received a total of 7,900 asylum applications, but if current rates are maintained the overall figure for this year will be considerably lower. Ireland accounts for 1 per cent of the applications received in the 29 industrialised countries monitored by the UNHCR.