Numbers seeking asylum down by 67% due to impact of Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the numbers seeking asylum in Ireland falling by two thirds in 2020.

New figures released by State agency, the International Protection Office (IPO) show that the numbers to seek asylum here in 2020 totalled 1,566.

According to the IPO, this represents a 67.3 per cent reduction on the 4,781 to claim asylum here in 2019.

The fall off in applications follows a number of years growth in those seeking asylum here — the 2019 total followed 3,673 applications in 2018 and 2,927 in 2017 and the growth during those years put immense pressure on the State’s direct provision system.

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The detailed figures show that the Covid-19 enforced lockdowns and impact on international traffic resulted in numbers seeking asylum here reducing to a trickle during the second quarter of last year.

The figures show that for the month of April, only 30 people sought asylum, compared to 344 for the same month in 2019.

This was followed by 16 for May 2020 and 41 applications for last June.

The collapse in numbers seeking asylum here coincided with a 99 per cent drop in passenger traffic through Dublin airport during April as airlines ceased the bulk of their scheduled flights due to Covid 19 restrictions.

In 2019, the top two countries to feature on the list were European — 976 applications were made by Albanians and 635 were made by Georgians.

However, neither featured in the top five last year.

In 2020, the top five countries, with the exception of Pakistan, were all African. Nigeria accounting for 13 per cent of all applicants, ahead of Somalia on 11 per cent.