Information
If the Refugee Applications Commissioner or the Refugee Appeals Tribunal in
Ireland makes a recommendation to the Minister for Justice and Equality that
you should be given a declaration as a refugee, the Minister for Justice and
Equality will give you a declaration in writing stating that you are a refugee.
In accordance with the Refugee
Act 1996, as amended, you would then be entitled to:
- Seek and enter employment in the State
- Carry on any business, trade or profession in the State
- Have access to education and training in the same manner and to the same
extent in all respects as an Irish citizen
- Receive the same medical care and services and the same social welfare
benefits as an Irish citizen
- Reside in the State
- Have the same rights of travel in, to or from the State as Irish
citizens. [note: this is on the basis that the Minister for Justice and
Equality issues a travel document]
- Have the same freedom to practise your religion and the same freedom as
regards religious education of your child as an Irish citizen
- Have the same access to the courts as an Irish citizen
- Have the same right to form and be a member of associations and trade
unions as an Irish citizen
- Acquire, hold, dispose or otherwise deal with real or personal property
or an interest in such property in the same way and subject to the same
obligations and limitations as an Irish citizen
- be entitled to apply to the Minister for Justice and Equality for
permission for a member of your family or your civil
partner to enter and reside in the state, in accordance with Section
18 of the Refugee Act 1996, as amended.
If the Minister for Justice and Equality refuses to give you a declaration
as a refugee
If the Minister for Justice and Equality decides not to give you a
declaration as a refugee, you will be sent a Notice in writing stating that:
- Your application for a declaration as a refugee has been refused
- The period of your entitlement to remain in the State has expired and
- The Minister proposes to make a deportation order requiring you to leave
the State.
Where the Minister proposes to make a deportation order requiring you to
leave the State, you will be given four options. These options are:
- to make representations to the Minister within 15 working days setting
out why you should be allowed to remain in the State
- to leave the State before the Minister decides the matter and inform the
Minister in writing of the arrangements you have made for this purpose
- to consent to the making of the deportation order within 15 working days.
- to apply for a new form of protection, known as "subsidiary
protection", under new
Regulations (pdf) which came into effect on 10 October 2006. When you
get the notice telling you that your application has been refused, an
application form for subsidiary protection will be enclosed.
If the Minister for Justice and Equality makes a deportation order to
remove you from the State
In accordance with the Immigration
Act 1999, as amended, the Minister for Justice and Equality may make a
deportation order against you and the notice of the deportation order may
require you to:
- Present yourself to a member of the Garda Síochána (Irish police) or
immigration officer
- Produce any travel document, passport, travel ticket or other document in
your possession to the Garda Siochana or immigration officer
- Co-operate in any way necessary to enable a member of the Garda
Síochána or immigration officer to obtain a travel document, passport,
travel ticket or other document required for the purpose of such
deportation
- Reside or remain in a particular district or place in the State pending
removal from the State
- Report to a specified Garda Síochána
station or immigration officer at specific intervals pending removal
from the state
- Notify the member of An Garda
Síochána or immigration officer specified in the notice as soon as
possible of any change in your address.
Where an immigration officer or a member of An Garda Síochána, with
reasonable cause, suspects that a person against whom a deportation order is in
force:
- Has failed to comply with any provision of the order or with a
requirement
- Intends to leave the state and enter another state illegally
- Has destroyed identity documents or is in possession of forged identity
documents or
- intends to avoid deportation;
The Officer concerned may arrest that person without warrant and detain that
person in a prescribed place.
Revocation of a declaration as a refugee
The Minister for Justice and Equality may decide to revoke a declaration as
a refugee, in circumstances, where a refugee:
- Voluntarily re-avails of the protection of the country of his/her
nationality
- Voluntarily reacquires his/her lost nationality
- Acquires a new nationality (other than the nationality of the State) and
enjoys the protection of the country of his/her own nationality
- Voluntarily re-establishes himself or herself in the country, which
he/she left or outside which he/she remained owing to fear of persecution
- Can no longer continue to refuse to avail of the protection of the
country of his/her nationality because the circumstances that led to
him/her being recognised as a refugee have ceased to exist
- Is a person who has no nationality and who is able to return to the
country of his/her former habitual residence because the circumstances that
led to him/her being recognised as a refugee have ceased to exist
- Is a person whose presence in the State poses a threat to national
security or public policy or
- Is a person to whom a declaration as a refugee has been given on the
basis of information furnished to the Refugee Applications Commissioner or
the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, which was false or misleading.
Where the Minister proposes to revoke a declaration, the person concerned
will be notified and will have 15 working days from the issue of the
notification to make representations to the Minister for Justice. In cases
where the Minister decides to revoke a declaration, the person concerned will
have 15 working days from the sending of the notice containing the decision and
the reasons for it to appeal to the High Court.
National security and public policy considerations
Under Section
17(2)(a) of the Refugee Act 1996, as amended, if the Minister for Justice
and Equality considers that, in the interest of national security or public
policy ("ordre publique"), it is necessary to do so, the Minister may, by
order:
- Provide that section 3 (certain rights of refugees), section 9 (leave to
enter or remain in the State) and section 18 (family reunification) shall
not apply to a person who has been given a declaration as a refugee and
- require that person to leave the State.
