As more people face a shorter window to appeal asylum claims, hasty deportation orders cause undue stress

In France, Taiwo Christianah Oladoyin was sleeping rough and avoiding cops. “I was afraid they would deport me,” she said, recently on a video call.

After three months, French asylum officials rejected her claim. She could have appealed.

But they never offered her a place to sleep, she says. Navigating homelessness with a language barrier was traumatising, she says.

“Some people, they understand English, but they won’t answer you in English. They want you to speak their way,” she says.

So she found a smuggler who had people in Ireland and agreed to help her get out, said Oladoyin, who is a citizen of Nigeria.

In Ireland, she opened another asylum case in late April and was called for an interview in August, she says.

By late October, she got a letter saying she should be sent back to France under the Dublin III Regulation, which says once a person applies for asylum in one country they can only move elsewhere and apply again in particular circumstances.

She had a right to appeal that decision, but only a short window of 10 days to get the paperwork together and submitted . And, in the meantime, she got a deportation letter in the post.

For those like Oladoyin who are facing deportation to another country under the Dublin Regulation, or because they are from what has been deemed a “safe country”, the window for appeal is tight.

Official figures suggest that since the Department of Justice sped up processing of some asylum claims, from citizens of so-called “safe countries”, the number of deportation orders it has issued has ticked up significantly.

But immigration lawyers say that doesn’t mean those deportation letters are all valid or enforceable. Yet, the number sent out indicates the difficulties of accessing lawyers quickly enough and submitting appeals under the gun, they say.

Asked about this, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said the law sets out the window of time for appealing asylum rejections.

Haste makes waste

The total number of deportation orders the Department of Justice issued in 2022 was 271, according to its figures. In 2023, that rose to 957.

Then, between January and 15 November 2024, the department issued 1,324 deportation orders just for citizens of countries it considers “safe”, its figures show.

Olayodin got hers on 7 November, which said she would be deported back to France “not later than” 26 December.

It came on the same day her lawyer lodged her appeal of the rejection of her asylum claim, says Oladoyin.

She had filed her appeal just in the nick of time, but that deportation order will still pad out the department’s numbers.

Even if those orders are unsound and are later overturned.

Stephen Kirwan, partner and solicitor at KOD Lyons, who represents Oladoyin, says the International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT), has never refused a late appeal from him. That makes issuing hasty deportation orders seem all the more unnecessary, said Kirwan.

Unless someone just can’t reach a lawyer on time, gets caught in the fast-tracked process and gets unjustly deported, he said.

Caught unprepared

Last month, immigration barrister Cathal Malone told a public meeting at the Teachers Club that he knew of a man from the country of Georgia who had struggled to file an appeal in time and narrowly avoided deportation.

The man couldn’t submit the appeal on time because the state sent the case file to his legal aid lawyer with a one-week delay, Malone said.

The guards quickly arrested the guy and sent him to prison to wait for a flight back, he said.

Somehow, a friend got Malone’s number, he says. “I did manage to get him back into the process, but that was completely sort of by chance.”

Georgia is on the list of countries that Ireland perceives to be “safe”, meaning the government processes the cases of people from there faster, and they get a shorter window for appeal.

Other circumstances where people might have a shorter appeals window include cases where immigration officials consider someone to be able to move elsewhere in their country of birth safely, says IPAT’s website.

Speedy processes without proper access to legal aid are unfair and messy, says Daniel Ghezelbash, director of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at the University of New South Wales Sydney.

In Australia, the government sped up the process without beefing up legal aid support, says Ghezelbash, who co-wrote a policy brief exploring fairness in fast-tracked asylum systems.

The government redirected appeals from people whose cases were fast-tracked to a new tribunal whose appeal reviews were limited and hasty, and applicants struggled to access legal advice, he said.

“Not only was the process unfair, but also led to a much slower system overall, with very high rates of cases being overturned on judicial review.”

In May 2024, Australian lawmakers voted to abolish that system altogether, Ghezelbash said. “It was an unmitigated disaster.”

The seeds of fear

Even when deportation orders issued in haste are unsound, they’re still scary for those who get them.

Oladoyin, the woman facing deportation, said that in France, she worried her story wasn’t carried over to French properly during the asylum interview.

“I had an interpreter but you don’t know what he interprets in return,” she said.

Kirwan, Oladoyin’s lawyer, says the International Protection Office is also inconsistent about who it tries to send back under Dublin III.

Some clients who had opened cases elsewhere in the zone didn’t face transfers back, he said. “I don’t really understand the criteria for selection. Some people are getting picked on, some aren’t.”

In the deportation letter that Oladoyin got, she was asked to show up at the Burgh Quay immigration office on 25 November. “To make arrangements for your transfer,” it says.

Kirwan says she can’t be deported now that her appeal is lodged but the deportation order, even if on hold, can leave clients inconsolable. “It can cause a significant amount of panic,” he said.

Oladoyin says she is scared to turn up on 25 November. “The Garda security might come for my arrest,” she said in a text message.

Kirwan said he would try to reassure her again.