Government has admitted the new threshold will be breached, representing an increase by half on the previous year.
The continuing flow calls into question previous Coalition claims that people were crossing the border from Northern Ireland because of fears of the former British Government’s Rwanda policy.
A new Labour Government has been in power in London since the election in early July, with the Rwanda deportations threat torn up. But arrivals seeking international protection in Ireland have continued undimmed.
The breaching of 20,000 arrivals in 2024 compares to 13,277 international protection applications in 2023. Minister for Justice Helen McEntee told the Government of the situation this week.
She had argued that arrival numbers have dimmed somewhat through accelerated International Protection (IP) processing announced earlier this year.
She also told colleagues of measures being taken to improve the IP system, and progress on preparing for implementation of the EU Asylum and Migration Pact, which the Government hopes will brake influxes at the outer edges of the European Union.
But after record levels of IP applications in 2022 and 2023, the trend “continued upwards in 2024,” a Government spokesman admitted.
There were 15,496 applications at the end of September, already exceeding total 2023 IP arrivals. Ukrainian refugees fall into the separate Temporary Protection category, and their numbers here have been falling.
“On current trends, there may be 20,000 IP applications this year,” the spokesman admitted.
Minister McEntee has taken several steps to strengthen the immigration system including suspending visa free travel to Ireland for refugees who are holders of a cocument issued by another state.
Visas are now additionally required for Bolivia, Botswana, Dominica, Honduras and Vanuatu, bringing Irish visa requirements more in line with the UK and Schengen countries.
Immigration police at Dublin Airport have stepped up ‘doorstep’ operations, with over 6,000 such interventions so far this year.
Ms McEntee also outlined progress with regard to Garda civilianisation, with 100 more Gardaí having been released from immigration enforcement activities, their duties being taken over by civil servants.