A total of 18,651 people applied for asylum in Ireland in 2024, exceeding the previous record by more than 5,000 people.
The previous highest year on record was 2023 when 13,264 people made applications for international protection.
Before that, the highest figure was recorded in 2002 when 11,598 people applied for asylum.
While the figures for last year are the highest on record, the monthly breakdown published by the International Protection Office (IPO) shows that new measures to fast-track applicants from some countries did have an impact and could have reduced the overall numbers by several thousand.
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Since November 2022, a total of 15 countries have been designated as safe countries of origin and citizens of those countries who apply for asylum are subject to an accelerated process whereby their applications are dealt with within a period of three months.
There has been a drop of almost 70 per cent in applications from designated safe countries following the introduction of those accelerated procedures.
In the first four months of 2024, a total of 2,461 people from Nigeria applied for asylum in Ireland, almost five times as many from the country (549) as had applied in the same period in 2023.
Although not designated a safe country, then minister for justice Helen McEntee introduced a new policy in April last year which applied the fast-tracking process to applicants from the country with the highest number of applications. At the time, it was Nigeria.
In the following eight months of 2024, from May to December, there were a total of 1,576 applicants from Nigeria, a reduction of 68 per cent compared to the period between January and April.
[ Number of Nigerian asylum seekers falls dramatically under fast-track systemOpens in new window ]
In contrast to that, the number of people seeking asylum from Jordan increased dramatically during the summer months in 2024, increasing from less than 500 to 2,766 in September.
In late July, Ms McEntee announced a new policy where those from the two countries, which are not on the “safe” country list but have the highest number of applicants, would be subject to the accelerated process.
Partly as a result of that change in policy, in the final three months of 2024 the number of applications for asylum from Jordanian nationals fell from an average of 500 a month from May to September, to only 37 per month in the final three months of the year.
Nigeria is still the country of origin with the highest number of applications, with 4,037 for 2024, twice the number for 2023 (2,028). Jordan is the second highest with 2,877 applicants. It did not feature in the top five in 2023. The next three highest are Pakistan and Somalia, each with about 1,300 asylum seekers, and Bangladesh, with just over 1,000 for the year.
Immigration was a big political issue during 2024, especially around the local, and European, elections. The new Government has established a new Department of Home Affairs within the Department of Justice to deal with this issue and a new Minister of State role is being created with specific responsibility for immigration policy and measures.
It is understood the new Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, has supported fast-tracking as having been effective but is of the view that new measures will be required during 2025 to ensure the number of people seeking asylum is reduced.
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