A total of 14 men and women died while going through the international protection system last year, the highest number since records began.
New statistics published biannually by the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) reveal 11 male and two woman asylum seekers died in 2024. The gender of the additional person who died was classified as “other/not known”.
The State received 18,561 asylum applications in 2024, exceeding the previous record, in 2023, by more than 5,000.
Men represent just under 70 per cent of deaths in the asylum system since 2002.
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Figures shows nine asylum seekers died in 2023, while 10 died in 2022. One man and two women going through the international protection system have died so far this year. One of these was 34-year-old Nigerian man Quham Babatunde, who was fatally stabbed in Dublin last February 15th.
A total of 131 people, including 31 children aged 17 or younger, have died during the international protection process since 2002. Records show 23 children aged two years or under have died during this time.
Nearly 60 per cent of deaths were among adults aged 26-55. Data from 1999-2002, when the State’s direct provision system first started, is not available.
Nearly a quarter of those who died since 2002 were Nigerian. People from Pakistan, Georgia, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are also among the top five nationalities recorded as deceased.
Bulelani Mfaco, a former spokesperson of the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (Masi), recalled how a recent death he witnessed in an IPAS centre last year was “traumatic” and “frightening” for residents.
“A lot of people come to Ireland and end up in direct provision because they feared death in their own country. When someone dies close to you it brings back the reality of what they escaped from.”
Irish officials sometimes struggle to track down the family members of individuals who die after coming to Ireland alone, said Mr Mfaco. “A lot of them know no one here so nobody is in touch with their family. I remember during the pandemic I got a call from gardaí that they had just stopped a man from taking his own life and I was the only contact in his phone, I’d been providing support through Masi. Can you imagine that loneliness?”
Files released to The Irish Times reveal a GP from the Safetynet Primary Care charity warned last year that a “higher than expected number of patients” living in a remote international protection centre, in “extreme isolation”, had become “suicidal”.
The State began publishing details of deaths within the asylum system in June 2021. It followed years of campaigning by refugee advocacy groups and a call by the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to provide transparency regarding deaths in direct provision centres. “If a person dies in the care of the State we want to see some accountability for that,” said Mr Mfaco.
While the Government does not reveal the cause of death of specific individuals, issues with the “circulatory system” have been recorded as the most common cause of death. Accidents, poisoning and violence was recorded for 11 per cent of deaths, while nearly 10 per cent were due to neoplasm – the growth of abnormal cells that can become cancerous. Cardiac failure, cancer, endocrine, nutrition, metabolic, respiratory system, nervous system, digestive system, infectious and parasitic diseases, drowning and sudden infant death syndrome are also listed as causes of death.
Dublin has recorded the highest number of deaths among international protection applicants, followed by counties Cork, Meath and Galway.
There are 33,045 asylum seekers, including 9,329 children, living in State-provided accommodation, according to the latest statistics.
