How many people does Ireland deport every year?

THE GOVERNMENT HAS resumed the deportation of asylum seekers from Ireland on chartered flights, with 32 people sent to Georgia last night in the first such operation in a number of years.

Those on board the flight had all received Deportation Orders – legal orders to leave the country – after they were deemed to be illegally resident in Ireland.

Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said this morning that the Government intends to oversee an increase in the number of deportation orders that are issued this year.

The move signals a change in the way that the government deals with deportations as typically, the number of deportations that have been enforced has been far lower than the number of orders that are signed.

How many people get deported every year?

Last year, 2,403 deportation orders were signed by the Department of Justice.

That compares to 857 deportation orders signed in 2023, and 528 orders signed in 2022.

But figures from the Department that were published last week revealed that 134 people were deported last year – about 5% of the number of orders signed.

O’Callaghan’s predecessor as Justice Minister, Helen McEntee, told an Oireachtas Commitee last year that fewer than 100 people had been deported between the start of 2023 and April 2024.

In a response to a Parliamentary Question about deportations at the end of 2023, McEntee also said that 248 people were “removed from the State under various immigration processes” in 2022.

However, the language used by the former minister suggests that the figure does not just refer to enforced deportations; it implies that the Government used other means (such as voluntary return) to remove people from the State. 

Why do people get deported?

Deportation orders can be issued for a number of reasons.

A person may have come to Ireland on a valid visa, but no longer has permission to be in the country, in which case they have no legal right to remain.

An individual may also be deported if they’ve committed a serious criminal offence, particularly something that involves extreme violence or drugs.

In this instance, the State can deport a criminal if it’s believed that doing so would be “conducive to the public good”.

Asylum seekers whose applications are refused can also be deported if they seek to remain in the State after exhausting all avenues to seek refuge in Ireland.

This can happen if a person fails to prove they are at risk or have been persecuted in their home country, or if they come from what is called a Safe Country of Origin.

The Government maintains a list of what it deems to be “safe” countries, where it does not consider that people face a risk of persecution – though those who claim asylum from these countries are not automatically refused, because the Government must take their individual circumstances into account when deciding their status.

Georgia – the destination for last night’s charter flight – is one of the countries that the Government deems to be generally “safe”.

However, the Government does not publish a list of reasons why people get deported.

Why is the number of enforced deportations so low compared to the number of deportation orders that are signed?

Not everybody who is issued with a deportation order is forced to leave Ireland by the authorities.

Once an order is issued, individuals are given time to leave the country voluntarily, and many people end up complying with the order instead of being forcibly removed.

People can also challenge a deportation order – or if they are an asylum seeker, a rejection of their application – through legal means, which can significantly delay the process.

It’s only when legal avenues have been exhausted and a person refuses to leave the State that they are forcibly removed from Ireland.

Another factor is the cost and length of time that enforced deportation operations take, involving complex investigations into individuals and possible legal challenges.   

The Department of Justice has said that enforced removals are carried out as a “last resort”, when a person does not remove themselves from the State or avail of assisted voluntary return measures that are offered by the Government.

Have chartered flights happened before?

Although last night’s operation was the first time the Government has chartered a flight with the sole intention of deporting people, it is not the first time Ireland has participated in a process like this.

In 2018, Ireland was involved in a joint return operation with the UK and availed of seats to deport people on a charter flight to Nigeria.

The following year, Ireland also led a charter plane and co-operated with Belgium and Iceland to deport Georgian and Albanian nationals.

In 2012, a high-profile charter flight saw a Garda hospitalised after they were attacked and slashed with a sharp object aboard a repatriation flight to Nigeria.