The Minister for State has hailed the Government’s new rules for asylum seekers as a “fundamental gamechanger” that will benefit applicants by cutting waiting times.
Today, the EU Migration and Asylum Pact comes into force and will see asylum seekers undergo enhanced security and identity checks, including the taking of biometric data.
The Government also aims to give all applicants a decision - including appeals - within three months.
On The Claire Byrne Show, Minister of State Colm Brophy described it as a “radically different system”.
“People arriving into our country will be automatically going into a process whereby they will, on an immediate basis, be processed,” he said.
“They will have information taken from them; that includes biometric and fingerprints, etc.
“They will make an initial application; we're aiming for effectively 12 weeks on that process -including the appeal within that process.”
Dublin Airport. Picture by: Don Mennig / Alamy.The Fine Gael TD continued that the changes will mean a “firm, fair and effective system”, which respects the human rights of migrants.
He added that the previous system was far too slow.
“We have a situation which in the past meant that the system was very bogged down and very cumbersome,” Minister Brophy said.
“I actually feel that by providing a fast and effective system to people, we are actually enhancing their rights because what we're enabling them to do is to make their case, to receive a judgment on their case and to have that done in a reasonable period of time rather than leaving people in limbo.”
Minister Brophy also promised that the appeals process would also be expedited and extra resources had been allocated accordingly.
“The people under the old system who were getting their first instance decision and making their appeal are also getting those appeals dealt with in a faster way,” he said.
“We will aim to clear those backlogs as quickly as we can as well.
“But the new appeals process and I think it's very important to remember, as of today, it's a completely different process in terms of the enhanced border checking.
“It's a 12 week process, including the appeals and we believe that's the fundamental gamechanger.”
Main image: Asylum seekers on Mount Street in Dublin. Picture by: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews
