Peter Whelan the Aontú rep for the Laytown/Bettystown area, which houses the Mosney direct provision centre, has called on the government to instantly deport asylum seekers who arrive here with either the incorrect paperwork or no documentation at all.
He told Meath Live, ” While I welcome these migrants who are fleeing war and torture in their countries , I also question the time it is taking to process asylum applications .
” The purpose of the asylum application process is to differentiate between genuine asylum seekers and those who are economic migrants . There are 14,100 pending applications for asylum at present . Thousands are waiting 2 or 3 year’s for their first decision to be made . The longest processing time for an application was an incredible 14 years . This is even before any possible appeals .
“Also it was reported that 5,000 asylum seekers arrived in Ireland without valid travel documents last year. That’s 40% of the total number of people applying for asylum. This is unsustainable.
” I understand that there were 4,631 deportation orders issued to people whose application for asylum was rejected between 2018 and last year. The government cannot confirm if 3,887 of these people who received deportation orders actually left the country. If the government are not enforcing deportations, we have in effect a voluntary deportation system .
“I am extremely concerned for the knock on effect this lack of decision making is likely to have on the future of our tourism industry in the Boyne Valley region, recently it has been stated by the Minister overseeing the process that the hospitality sector makes up 80% of asylum accommodation.
“It’s okay for the hotel or guest house owners , who are benefiting financially. My concern is that we have no accommodation for our tourists to stay in . This will mean all our small artisan and craftsmen and women will not earn any money from tourism in the Boyne valley .
“Meath and Louth county councils have over the years , put millions of euro into promoting the Boyne valley and now these tourists have nowhere to stay. The whole system is broken by total incompetence of this government.
“Our government keep telling us we have international obligations but I’m saying we have National obligations too . We have a housing crisis . We have a hospital crisis . And now we have a tourism crisis . I’m calling on this government to get its act together and deport invalid applicants and process applications much quicker.”
