People from Nigeria made the most asylum applications to Ireland this year, according to statistics issued by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, yesterday.
Some 1,156 applications were received from Nigerians, followed by Romanians with 1,150. The Democratic Republic of Congo followed with 143, while there were 99 applications from Poles.
The number of asylum applications last year was 7,724, compared with 3,848 to the end of April this year. There were 4,626 applications in 1998 and 3,883 in 1997.
The Minister said in the Dail that Ireland's take of asylum applications from Romania and Nigeria "appears disproportionately high compared to other EU member-states".
