Asylum seekers are likely giving Ireland a miss because of the country’s low acceptance rate of asylum applications, the head of the International Organisation for Migration’s (IOM’s) Dublin mission has said.
Ireland’s location on the periphery of Europe and the aftermath of the economic crisis are also likely behind the fall in numbers, according to Theodora Suter, who spoke to Metro Éireann at her office on 8 January.
Even as the number of Europe-wide asylum applications continues to rise, the most recent Irish Government statistics reveal that the number of asylum applications here has continued to plummet over the last decade, from 11,600 applications in 2002 to 946 in 2013.
That drop is not because of any improvement in situations in countries of origin, said Suter, the IOM’s chief of mission in Dublin who has previously worked in Jordan, Pakistan and Geneva.
“I think it’s because compared to other European countries it’s much more difficult to reach Ireland because of its geographical location,” she said. “And also because, generally speaking, refugees know in which countries they would stand maybe better opportunities to be granted status.
“If you look at the rate of acceptance in Ireland, it’s not so high, and the conditions are not, you know, comparatively so good.”
Low asylum approval rate
In 2012 Ireland had an approval rate for asylum applications of 8.6 per cent compared to the EU average of 25.2 per cent, according to EU figures.
Suter wouldn’t comment on whether it is time to renegotiate the Dublin Regulation, under which would-be refugees must claim asylum in the first European country they reach.
The agreement has been criticised for putting an unfair burden on southern European states.
According to Suter, the IOM is a “neutral organisation” and so “that’s not for me to say”. But she added: “If you look at south of Europe, then clearly they cannot deal with the numbers of people they are getting.”
The IOM has been busy in Ireland, where it runs a clutch of migration-related projects funded by both the Government and the European Union.
The organisation’s work includes helping successful asylum seekers to bring family members over to join them, spreading awareness of trafficking, organising the logistics for resettlement projects, and helping certain groups of migrants to get back home.
And its Voluntary Assisted Return Programme continues each year to help about 400 people – either asylum seekers or vulnerable, irregular migrants – get back to their home countries from Ireland.
According to figures for the period of January to October 2013, a total of 359 people in Ireland turned to IOM for help getting back home. They were mainly from Brazil, Moldova, China, Mauritius and South Africa.
“It’s an option to go home in a way that is humane and safe, with a lot of support from the organisation during the return journey and post-arrival,” she said.
Some better than others
The IOM pays for people to travel home, and also gives financial and other support to help them set up businesses, or retrain. But it’s up to the governments of receiving countries to support their returning citizens.
Some countries are better than others at this, said Suter, who cited the example of Georgia, which has a network of advice centres to “really capitalise on the resources that they are getting back in terms of human capital”.
The major plus for migrants in Ireland who opt for the return programme is that it doesn’t affect future visa applications.
“The fact that you have used assisted voluntary return is not recorded in your file and you can come back,” said Suter.
In the coming year, IOM’s Dublin office will be occupied with running these ongoing programmes, but the mission is also thinking of ways of tapping into Ireland’s success in mining the talent and resources of its extensive diaspora, helping other countries with large numbers of expatriates – like Moldova – learn from Irish experiences.
“Ireland has developed an impressive system of involving its diaspora, the Irish diaspora, in its development and the support of its country,” said Suter. “And this is a good model that can be useful for other countries, in terms of how you mobilise your diaspora.”
