Minister McEntee announces further measure to expedite International Protection application processing
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From: Department of Justice
- Published on: 23 April 2024
- Last updated on: 30 August 2024
The Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has today updated her Cabinet colleagues on a new measure which she has introduced to speed up international protection application processing times.
From today, the IPO will be prioritising and accelerating the processing of a new category of applicants – those from the country of origin with the highest number of applications in the previous three months. This will be in addition to those currently prioritised and accelerated under the safe country of origin list.
Under an accelerated decision-making process introduced by the Minister in November 2022, applications from safe countries are currently receiving decisions in less than 3 months.
Minister McEntee said:
“The best way to ensure the integrity of our immigration system is to ensure efficient processing of international protection applications - that gives protection really quickly to those who need it, while also demonstrating to applicants who don’t need it that there is nothing to gain from going down the asylum route.
"Since the introduction of the safe country procedures we have seen a 50% reduction in applications from countries designated as ‘safe’. It is clear evidence that people who are not in need or protection but who are perhaps coming here for economic reasons, are seeing that risking a refusal and deportation order, is not worth it.”
In quarter one of 2024 there were 1,669 applications for International Protection from applicants from Nigeria. This represented 32% of all applications made in that period and is the nationality with the highest number of applications in that period. Thus, in accordance with this new process, applicants from this country will now be processed on an accelerated basis for at least the next three months.
On this point the Minister noted:
“This decision is not about prioritising any particular named country. If the top country in terms of applications changes in the next three months, the prioritisation and acceleration of processing will switch to that nationality.
"The next assessment is expected to take place in July 2024. It will determine which country of origin represents the highest number of applications in the April-June 2024 period. Applicants from this country will then be subject to the accelerated process.”
Notes
At present, accelerated processing is being undertaken in regard to safe countries of origin. The current designated safe countries are Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Georgia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and South Africa.
The table below shows international protection applications in 2024 to 12 April.
| International Protection Applications in 2024 to 12 April (Provisional Data Subject to Correction) | ||
| Nationalities Over 5% | Applications | % of Total |
| All Nationalities | 6069 | 100% |
| Nigeria | 2053 | 33.8% |
| Bangladesh | 476 | 7.8% |
| Pakistan | 443 | 7.3% |
| Somalia | 409 | 6.7% |
| Current Accelerated Processing – Safe Countries of Origin in 2024 to 12 April | Applications | % of Total |
| Albania | 61 | 1% |
| Algeria* | 65 | 1.1% |
| Bosnia | 0 | 0% |
| Botswana* | 62 | 1% |
| Georgia | 200 | 3.3% |
| Kosovo | 2 | 0.03% |
| Macedonia | 0 | 0% |
| Montenegro | 0 | 0% |
| Serbia | 0 | 0% |
| South Africa | 198 | 3.3% |
- These countries were processed as safe countries of origin from 31 January only.