THE INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION Office is to prioritise the cases of applicants from Nigeria and Jordan as part of an effort to “speed up” processing. 

The Minister for Justice Helen McEntee announced that the IPO will now prioritise applications from the two countries of origin that had the highest number of applicants in the last three months.

It follows accelerated processing introduced in April which saw citizens of the country with the highest number of applicants in the previous quarter, which was Nigeria, being prioritised. 

According to the Department, there were 881 international protection applications from Jordan in the second quarter of the year, making it the country with the second-highest volume of applications.

In the first six months of 2023, there were 79 applications from Jordan. Over the same period this year, this number rose to 1,037.

The Department said expanding this category to the country with the second highest number of applications “will further speed up international protection application processing” and enable the IPO to “transition to meet the faster processing requirements of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum”.

McEntee said that following the acceleration measures introduced in April, there has been a 53% drop in the number of international protection applications from Nigeria. 

“By expanding this to include the country with the second highest number of applicants, I am further speeding up international protection processing,” she said.

There were 10,600 asylum applications received in the first six months of this year.

The top five countries with the most applications to Ireland are Nigeria with 2,999 applications, 1,037 from Jordan, 769 from Pakistan, 664 from Somalia and 649 from Bangladesh.

“Accelerated processing allows for faster decisions so, if a person is entitled to protection, they can get on with rebuilding their lives here in Ireland, and those who do not qualify can return to their own country in a timely manner,” McEntee said.

“I will continue to make regular assessments on which applicants will be subject to the accelerated process. Migration patterns can shift and change, and we must remain flexible and adaptive to maintain the integrity and efficiency of our immigration system.”

Accelerated processing was first introduced in November 2022. It is in place for those who have been granted asylum elsewhere in Europe, and for 15 countries of origin deemed “safe” by Ireland.

These are Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Egypt, Georgia, India, Kosovo, Malawi, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Morocco, Serbia and South Africa.

For safe countries, the Department said there has been a drop of up to 70% in applications from the already designated safe countries since the accelerated process was introduced.

It said the list of safe countries is kept “under review” having regard to the profile of applications being received.

It also said there has been “significant investment” in speeding up processing of IP applications.

“This includes doubling the staff assigned to the International Protection Office and the opening of a new processing location at Citywest in April of this year,” it said.

There were 1,174 deportation orders signed up to 25 July, a 90% increase on the 617 signed in the same period last year, the Department said.