More than half the immigrants who applied for asylum in the State this year are either Romanian or Nigerian, Government figures show.
Of the 5,497 people who made asylum applications in the year until October, 1,678 were Romanian and 1,155 were Nigerian.
The number of Romanians applying for asylum per month increased almost six-fold, from 54 last January to 309 last month, according to the figures from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
The number of Nigerians applying for asylum over the same period increased more than four-fold, from 62 last January to 260 in October.
The number of asylum applications by Nigerians and Romanians increased significantly in August.
In July, 119 Nigerians applied for asylum, and in August this figure rose to 190. In September 204 applications were made.
In July, 173 Romanian applications were made, and this figure rose to 391 in August. In September, 298 Romanians made asylum applications.
A total of 206 Algerians have applied for asylum this year.
There have been 175 applicants from the Democratic Republic of Congo, 217 from Kosovo, 197 from Moldova and 141 from Sierra Leone.
The number of cases waiting to be processed by the Department stands at 8,150.