Young Asian men driving resurgence in asylum applications

Undoubtedly the ugliest and most distressing part of any country’s immigration policy, the rate of forced deportations has slowed dramatically in the past two years.

The decrease is occurring at precisely the time when they may have been expected to increase because, for the first time since 2002, the number of asylum seekers coming to Ireland has increased.

The reversal of the decline in applications – from the peak of 11,634 applicants in 2002 down to 946 in 2013 – was perhaps anticipated.

The movement of people fleeing trouble spots, especially in the Middle East post-Arab spring, has presented huge challenges for many European countries.

And though Ireland is an island nation off the west coast of the Continent, it would surprise nobody if people moving across borders amid the latest migration crisis reached our shores.

Different picture

However, an examination of nationalities of the increased number of people applying for asylum in the Republic shows a different picture.

The number of Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals applying has surged ahead and accounts for almost all of the increase in asylum claims.

"The application cohort we are talking about from those countries tend to be young males in their early to mid 20s, maybe a little older," said Department of Justice acting secretary general Noel Waters.

“(They) might have arrived in the UK as students; might have run out of time in their immigration status.

“And in order to remain within the common travel area between Ireland the UK they would come to Ireland and make an application here. It is a concern.”

In all of 2014 there were 292 claims for asylum from Pakistani nationalities. This has raced ahead, with 1,118 in the first nine months of this year.

The second most represented nationality in the figures is now from Bangladesh. Its nationals had lodged 99 claims in all of last year, but in the first nine months of 2015 that has reached 231 claims; higher than any other nationality bar Pakistan.

Immigration trends

Albania and Nigeria are next, with 169 and 124 claimants respectively, with those countries traditionally featuring strongly in our immigration trends.

Like Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals, the number of people from India claiming asylum has also increased significantly, albeit from a very low base.

Last year, for example, just 12 people from India claimed asylum in Ireland, with that figure increasing to 105 in the first nine months of this year.

The numbers coming from some of those countries where all-out war or unrest have resulted in the global migration crisis feature closer to the middle or bottom of the table when studying the breakdown in applications last year and to date in 2015.

For example, there were 83 applications from Afghans to the end of September, compared with 25 in all of last year.

While 25 Syrians applied for asylum in the Republic last year, that has now double to 50 in the first nine months of this year, though this is dwarfed by the 1,118 mainly young male UK students from Pakistan to have lodged applications in Ireland to the end of September.

Despite all of the political unrest and resultant break down in law and order in Libya, just 31 of its nationals applied for asylum in the Republic in the first nine months of this year.

Similarly, just 32 Iraqis lodged claims in the nine months to the end of September, a modest increase in the 26 to apply last year.

It appears the resurgence in asylum applications in Ireland is coming from young men from Asia with the resources to study in the UK and to move between there and Ireland.

Those we have seen on our TV screens clinging to inflatable boats off the coast of Turkey or packing the roads and trains of Eastern Europe looking for leaky border crossings into the EU are so destitute and desperate they have been unable to stake their claim to our help.