Difference between an asylum seeker and a refugee Expand Is there a difference between an international protection applicant and a refugee? Yes. An asylum seeker is a person who has made an application to be a refugee. An ‘international protection applicant’ is a different term but refers to the same situation. The Irish Refugee Council generally uses the phrase ‘person seeking protection’ or ‘international protection applicant’ when speaking to a wider audience that may not be familiar with these terms we use the phrase asylum seeker. An applicant can only become a refugee after the authorities have given a positive decision on their application. People in this process are to stay in the state until their application for protection is decided.
Direct Provision Expand The system for accommodating people in the asylum process in Ireland. People are accommodated in communal accommodation centres which are run on a for-profit basis by private contractors. The centres provide food, board and for people’s basic needs. In addition to bed and board people receive a weekly cash allowance of €38.80 per adult and €29.80 per child and a medical card. While in this process people are not entitled to usual social welfare payments, although they may apply for an exceptional needs payment from the local Community Welfare Officer. The weekly allowances and exceptional payments are awarded on a discretionary basis by the Department of Social Protection.
Where do refugees come from? Expand Refugees come from many places across the world. Sometimes the persecution they flee is well known and recognised, for example the war in Syria and Afghanistan. There is often a misunderstanding that refugees are only born of war and conflict. In reality, others, their plight is not so widely known, or the persecution they face is more personal – e.g. sexuality or gender. The reality is there are many reasons why a person may become a refugee.
Why People Seek Protection Expand There is often a misunderstanding that refugees are only born of war and conflict. Sometimes the persecution they flee is well known and recognised, for example, the war in Ukraine, Syria, and Afghanistan. In reality, others, their plight is not so widely known, or the persecution they face is more personal – e.g. sexuality or gender. The reality is there are many reasons why a person may become a refugee. A refugee is anyone who cannot return to their country for fear of persecution for one of the following five reasons: Race – including ethnicity Religion – in some countries having no religion is viewed as badly as being of the ‘wrong’ religion Nationality Membership of a particular social group – this can include things like membership of a trade union, your gender (i.e. male or female), your sexual orientation Political opinion – this does not simply mean that you have to be a member of a political party, but if you have any political opinions, or even if people think you do. Refugees are entitled to be protected against forcible return to their countries of origin.
Separated Children / Unaccompanied Children Expand Children under 18 years of age, who are outside their country of origin, and separated from both parents and their previous/legal customary primary caregiver. Young people who fall into this category are under the care of the Health Service Executive (Tusla) in Ireland. All children that have been given refugee status are entitled to the same rights as Irish children including the same access to education. Children who are waiting for a decision on their protection application can attend primary and secondary school, but they are not entitled to free fees for college and must pay non-EU fees which they usually cannot afford. Remember, people seeking protection receive only €29.80 for children and €38.80 for adults. This must cover any additional expenses a person may have. It would take a long time to save enough for college fees. When an unaccompanied child turns 18 and their application for protection is still pending they are moved from the care of the state into the Direct Provision system and become known as an “aged out minor”. Visit our policy page on Children and Young People to read more.
Do people seeking protection receive social welfare? Expand An a protection applicant is not entitled to social welfare support. They are subject to a means test and if they cannot live independently, they receive payment referred to as the Daily Expenses Allowance (DEA). An adult DEA in the asylum process gets €38.80 per week; a child gets €29.90. I.e., €5.54 per day for an adult and €4.27 for a child. These rates were last changed in 2018. A person can have their DEA reduced if they have caused the delay in consideration of their application, failed to comply with a requirement on them, breached the house rules or engaged in violent behaviour. They can also be required to contribute to the ‘rent’ if they are working. Child asylum seekers do not receive child benefit. They can apply for an exceptional needs payment for items like clothes. They can receive Back to Education Clothing and Footwear Allowance. A person can apply for permission to work if they have not had a decision within six months of making their application. Work permits are issued for a twelve-month period and must be renewed at intervals.
Different Types of Statuses Expand After applying for international protection, people can receive any of the following: Refugee Status is granted when an international protection applicant receives a positive decision based on the Refugee Convention definition of a refugee. However, there are other people who receive refugee status before coming to Ireland. They are known as resettled refugees or programme refugees and would have been processed by UNHCR from places like Lebanon and Jordan. Along with many other countries in the world, Ireland has a long history of accepting resettled refugees under Resettlement Programmes. Subsidiary Protection is granted when a person applies for international protection and their reasons for seeking protection do not meet the criteria of a refugee as defined in the Refugee Convention, but there are grounds for believing that they would face a real risk of suffering serious harm if returned to their country of origin. Permission to remain is another status granted to protection applicants in Ireland who fall out of the criteria for refugee status or subsidiary protection but cannot be returned for humanitarian or other compelling grounds. This may include medical grounds, family connections in Ireland, length of time, work, and education in Ireland. This is at the discretion of the Minister for Justice. People with permission to remain can live and work in the country, but cannot apply for family reunification. Temporary Protection is another type recently used by European states to provide protection to Ukrainians after Russia invaded Ukraine. NB: The conditions attached to each status can vary considerably.
Can people in the international protection process work? Expand An international protection applicant can apply for permission to access the labour market six months after the date of application. Work permits are issued on a 12-month period and must be renewed at intervals. It is a criminal offence to work prior to this. Up until 2018 an asylum seeker could not work; however, this was successfully challenged in a Supreme Court decision in 2017. Approximately 8,000 people have been given permission to work since 2018. Many people in the protection process are employed as essential workers, doing vital work that supports our communities, including during Covid-19. The Reception Conditions Directive requires Member States to grant asylum-seekers the right to work within 9 months, or earlier, of applying for asylum but allows States to determine the conditions under which this right is conferred. To see how other EU member states apply the right to work visit the Asylum and Information Database.
Trafficking and Smuggling Expand Trafficking refers to situations where people are moved from place to place or country to country against their will or under duress, by means such as deception, coercion or force, usually for the gains of others, in that the person(s) trafficked will be exploited for financial gain. Smuggling is not to be confused with people trafficking. Smuggling refers to situations where a person or persons pay someone to be transported to a different country of their own free will. In many cases the person acquiring the services of a smuggler is in a very difficult situation and this may be the only available option to them to access a place of safety or country in which they wish to apply for asylum. In most cases smugglers operate as a business and charge people large sums of money for journeys with no guarantees for their safety or of reaching their intended destination.
Do people lodge endless appeals when refused protection? Expand An asylum seeker has a right to one appeal. The appeal must be made within 15 working days of the negative decision. Appeals are made to the International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT). No further right of appeal exists. If a person wishes to challenge the process of making a decision they can ask the High Court to review a decision. This is called judicial review. This is less a review of the decision and is primarily concerned with the decision-making process. Delays are due to backlog in our legal system, not because of applicants ‘drawing out’ procedure.
Why are refugees still coming from Ukraine, is Ireland taking more refugees from Ukraine than other countries? Expand The situation in Ukraine is deteriorating. Fillipo Grandi, the Director of UNHCR stated, in January 2023: “I was appalled by the level of destruction I saw as a result of Russian missiles and shelling,” Grandi said at the end of his visit. “Civilian infrastructure like power plants, water systems, kindergartens and apartment buildings have been damaged or destroyed. Civilians, including children and the elderly, have been killed or fled their homes, having their entire lives uprooted by these senseless attacks.” The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated in its February 2023 report23: “Since the Russian Federation's 24 February invasion of Ukraine, the number of people in need of humanitarian aid and protection increased from approximately 3 million people to nearly 18 million, and hostilities and fighting spread across the country. Throughout the year, millions of Ukrainians endured intense hostilities, which killed and injured thousands of civilians, forced millions from their homes, destroyed jobs and livelihoods, and left many struggling to access food, water, health care, education, a safe place to live, and other essential services. For people in the east of the country – in Donetska and Luhanska oblasts – this only further exhausted their coping capacities, already limited by the years of fighting in the region.” As of 10 February there are 8,054,405 refugees from Ukraine recorded across Europe. There are 73,002 refugees from Ukraine in Ireland (0.9% of the total number of refugees). As a comparison the number of people receiving temporary protection in a sample of other countries is: Czech Republic: 485,775 France: 118,994 Germany: 881,399 Finland: 49,290 Lithuania: 73,606
How are people seeking protection accommodated and do they get automatic access to housing? Expand An international protection applicant has no entitlement to social housing or to be on the social housing waiting list. If they do not have money to rent they receive accommodation, this is often referred to as Direct Provision. In recent years this accommodation has included office blocks, hotels, convention centre halls and tents. In January 2023 the government stated that it may no longer accommodate single adults. Hundreds have arrived into homelessness since the January. If, after their application is considered, someone is recognised as a refugee and they need housing, they must apply to go on to the social housing waiting list. They have no priority access to the list and are subject to the same waiting times as others.
How many people are recognised as refugees in Ireland and are we different to other European countries? Are all asylum seekers recognised as refugees? How long does it take for an asylum claim to be considered? Expand How many people are recognised as refugees in Ireland and are we different to other European countries? Are all asylum seekers recognised as refugees? How long does it take for an asylum claim to be considered? Recognition rates compared: In 2022, 35% of decisions made in Ireland resulted in a person being given refugee or subsidiary protection.15 As a comparison, the average EU recognition rate across all member states for 2021 was 34%.16 The EU recognition rate for the month of November 2022 (most recent monthly statistics available from the EU Asylum Agency) was 39% in November. Application rates compared: In 2021 Ireland received 0.4% of the EU’s total asylum applications. For the month of November 2022, Ireland received 0.1% of the EU’s total asylum applications.
Why do some protection applicants arrive without a passport? How many and why do people not present a passport on arrival at the airport? Expand A travel document and passport is a crucial form of identity, without it a person may struggle to show that they are from the country they say they are from. 70,000 people applied for protection, from Ukraine and around the world in Ireland, in 2022, a small proportion did not have a document. We should be careful about overstating that being undocumented is a widespread phenomenon. It is also worth noting, that reports state that people did not provide a document. We recommend caution around an automatic assumption that it was destroyed. Article 31 of the Refugee Convention14 states a person seeking refugee status must still have their application processed even if he or she has entered a state illegally. The International Protection Act states that a person who is at the frontier of the State (whether lawfully or unlawfully) may make an application for international protection. This rationale exists because there is no visa to claim asylum, and it is very difficult for a person from a refugee-producing country to get a visa. People are often forced to travel in a way that requires them to travel in illegal or irregular ways, including using a smuggler who may take the passport back off the person when travelling. A person, in our experience, may not produce a document for several reasons: Fear of retribution: For some, it will not have been possible or safe for them to obtain passports or visas to travel. For example, in Afghanistan passports were not being issued for months, and people put their lives at risk by attending the offices to seek a passport. For this reason, some people will have no option but to rely on a false documents to travel. They fear retribution if this is discovered and do not feel comfortable disclosing documents. Fear of immediate removal: some people may fear if they produce the document they will be immediately removed back to the country of origin or the country from which they have travelled from. Smugglers and traffickers: People are often forced to travel in a way that requires them to travel in illegal or irregular ways, including using a smuggler who may take the passport back off the person when travelling. It is worth noting that safe pathways were opened for people fleeing Ukraine in the aftermath of the Russian invasion. People were allowed to board flights with birth certificates or internal identity documents. Visa rules were significantly loosened. This was a commendable response. Section 20 of the International Protection Act does give the power to arrest someone if they have not made reasonable efforts to establish their identity or if they have destroyed their travel document.
How does Ireland decide who is a refugee and how long does this process take? Expand Refugee status determination in Ireland is, in our 30-year experience, rigorous and involves a detailed examination of a person’s application. A refugee is a person who has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of one of five reasons (race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion). If a person is not recognised as a refugee, their application will also be considered as to whether they should receive subsidiary protection. To receive subsidiary protection substantial grounds have shown that the person is at risk of serious harm, such as the death penalty or execution, torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or serious and individual threat to a civilian’s life because of internal or international armed conflict. The median processing time for all international protection cases (which includes decisions on permission to remain) processed to completion by the IPO in Quarter 4 of 2022 was 10 months. The median processing time for cases processed to completion for all of 2022 was 18 months. If a person is refused refugee status they have one right of appeal to the International Protection Appeals Tribunal.
What is the registration process people seeking international protection must undertake? Expand The majority of international protection applicants arrive at Dublin airport, some also arrive via different ports of entry. They are interviewed by an immigration officer on arrival. Irish law gives the power to arrest someone if they have not made reasonable efforts to establish their identity or if they have destroyed their travel document. They are then directed to the International Protection Office on Mount Street in Dublin where they are registered. This includes being fingerprinted, photographed. Their passport is taken from them, if they have one, and remains in the possession of the IPO during the asylum process. Their fingerprints are taken and checked on an international database (Eurodac) to establish if they have applied for asylum elsewhere in the EU. They will also be checked against Interpol and Europol databases. They are subject to a preliminary interview which asks questions about identity and nationality. They are assigned an identity number. If they need accommodation, they are given a designated address at which they must reside. Currently some adult asylum seekers are not being offered accommodation. Since November 2022 new procedures will be introduced in the International Protection Office to accelerate the process for making a protection application in Ireland. The main purpose of these new regulations is to establish an accelerated process for international protection applicants from safe countries of origin.1 On the day of application, or shortly after, they must complete a detailed questionnaire on arrival, in person at the International Protection Office. They are then subject to a substantive and detailed interview about the details of their protection application claim. The Irish Refugee Council have criticised these changes as they remove, in our opinion, the possibility of practically accessing legal advice before a person completes the questionnaire. Their application is subject to the Dublin III Regulation if they have applied for asylum in another EU country, it can also be deemed inadmissible if the person is deemed to have a sufficient connection to a safe third country such as the United Kingdom. Irish law states that a person can be excluded from refugee protection if they have committed a serious crime.