The Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner (ORAC) has published its 2010 Annual Report. The report revealed a significant drop in the number of asylum seekers granted refugee status in 2010 - falling to a record low of 1.1%, equating to just 24 people. This compares to 2.5%, or 97 successful applicants, in 2009. The overwhelming majority of cases in 2010, 98.9%, were either rejected, withdrawn or the asylum seeker was transferred to another EU state to have their case heard there.
The report shows a drop of 27.9% in the number of applications made compared to those made in 2009. However, the ratio of male to female applicants remained the same as in previous years. The largest number of applicants came from Nigeria (20 per cent), followed by China (11.8 per cent), Pakistan (10.3 per cent), the Democratic Republic of Congo (3.7 per cent) and Afghanistan (3.6 per cent). ORAC notes that fewer cases were processed in 2010 due to the fall in application numbers, as well as "the transfer of a group of ORAC caseworkers to the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) to deal with work priorities there".
In a comment to the Irish Times, the Free Legal Advice Centres urged the Government to address Ireland's extraordinarily low recognition, which it said were becoming a concern for both Irish and international legal experts.
Readers of the Bulletin may recall that the United Nations Committee on Torture has called Ireland's refugee acceptance rate "a little extreme".
Click here read ORAC's Annual Report 2010 in full.