One quarter of deportees came from EU accession states

Almost a quarter of non-nationals deported from the Republic in the last 12 months were from EU accession states and will be free to return here from May 1st when the EU is enlarged.

It has also emerged that the Government has deported four Iraqis in the last year, despite the security situation in that country.

A spokesman for the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said the decision as to who can remain here is not made by the Minister. Instead, it is made by the Refugee Applications Commissioner's Office, with appeals heard by the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, which is completely independent of the Minister and the Department.

New deportation figures released by the Minister reveal 230 Romanian nationals were deported between April 1st, 2003, and March 31st, 2004. Romanians were the most represented nationality in the overall figures.

In total, 661 non-nationals were deported, with 158 deported to accession states.

The vast majority of cases arose following failed asylum applications. However, a smaller number were deported after having committed a crime while in Ireland.

Some 57 citizens of the Czech Republic were deported, the second-biggest group after the Romanians. They will all be free to return here from May 1st. Citizens from seven of the 10 EU accession states were deported in the 12 months to March 31st.

As well as the Czechs, the accession-state citizens deported included 40 Polish nationals, 25 Lithuanians, 19 Latvians, eight Estonians, five Hungarians and four Slovakians.

Since last September, a "safe list" of countries was drawn up by the Department of Justice, which included all EU and accession states.

It is understood that, since that date, a much smaller number of accession-state citizens have been deported.

A spokesman for Mr McDowell said the Irish authorities had an international and domestic legal obligation to process all asylum claims, regardless of the nationality of asylum-seeker.

He added that when an application was rejected in respect of an accession-state citizen, the authorities here deported those people because it had to be seen to apply the law fairly, regardless of nationality.

Citizens from a total of 40 countries were deported. They were sent back after being served with deportation orders signed by the Minister. Some went voluntarily and by arrangement, while others were forced deportees.

The new figures are released at a time when the rate of forced deportations being carried out by the Garda has greatly accelerated.

Three specially chartered planes have been used in the last two months to deport nearly 180 Moldovans, Nigerians and Romanians.

A 30-strong team of gardaí and medical staff travelled on each of the three planes, with a forward party travelling ahead to organise the necessary repatriation paperwork at each destination.

All of those deported had failed to avail of the opportunity to return voluntarily to their country of origin. Some had even assumed false identities in an attempt to remain on.

However, they were detained following Garda raids all over the State, and some were held in prison for up to a week before being deported.

While the Garda National Immigration Bureau is responsible for executing deportation orders once they have been signed by the Minister, the Garda have no control over who is deported.

Garda sources say the mass-deportation of large groups of non-nationals is the cheapest and least labour-intensive option available.

In the past, when gardaí have accompanied individuals on commercial flights, some deportees have created disturbances on the flight in an attempt to force the plane to turn around.