Ireland granted protection status to a record number of asylum seekers last year, with 5,085 individuals receiving positive decisions on their applications – an increase of nearly 8 per cent compared with 2024.
New figures released by the European Commission indicate that the rise in people granted protection status in the Republic during 2025 went against a wider EU pattern, where successful asylum applications dropped overall by 18 per cent, reports Breaking News.
The previous highest number of protection approvals in Ireland was recorded in 2022, when 4,950 applicants were successful.
The latest data places Ireland 9th among EU member states in 2025 for the number of people granted protection, an improvement from 11th position in 2024, reports Breaking News.
A Eurostat report shows Ireland recorded the third-highest number of positive asylum decisions last year, behind Estonia and Hungary.
The data indicates that 63.4 per cent of asylum seekers in Ireland were granted protection in 2025, compared with the EU average of 39.1 per cent, reports Breaking News.
Cyprus recorded the lowest approval rate, with only 7.9 per cent of applicants receiving protection status.
In proportional terms, applicants from Nicaragua, Myanmar, Eswatini, Sudan and Somalia were the most successful in Ireland, with more than 90 per cent approval rates, reports Breaking News.
Other nationalities with high approval rates included Zimbabwe, Palestine, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Ghana and Ukraine.
By contrast, applicants from Albania, India, Brazil, Morocco and Egypt saw very low success rates, with fewer than one in five receiving positive outcomes in each case, reports Breaking News.
The report also found that Ireland ranked fourth in the EU for positive final asylum decisions after appeals or reviews in 2025.
It shows that 32.0 per cent of rejected asylum applicants in Ireland succeeded on appeal for international protection, compared with the EU average of 20.9 per cent, reports Breaking News.
Only applicants from three countries saw a majority success rate at the final appeal stage: Afghanistan, Somalia and Zimbabwe.
The figures also show a record 145 unaccompanied minors were granted asylum in Ireland last year, reports Breaking News.
In addition, 10 individuals who had been granted international protection in Ireland had their status withdrawn in 2025.
Across EU member states, Afghans, Venezuelans, Syrians and Ukrainians made up the majority of those granted protection last year, accounting for 53 per cent of all successful cases, reports Breaking News.
In total, more than one million asylum decisions were made across the EU in 2025, with 361,325 people granted protection status.
Germany recorded the highest number of positive decisions at 103,360, followed by Spain with 76,210 and France with 72,930, with these three countries accounting for around 70 per cent of all approvals, reports Breaking News.
A total of 16,110 people across the EU had their protection status withdrawn or revoked after new information emerged that required reassessment of their cases.
Most of these revocations took place in Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, reports Breaking News.
The report also states that 290 vulnerable non-EU nationals were resettled in Ireland last year, all of them Syrians, following requests from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
In December, Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said the Government was seeking to reduce the number of asylum seekers arriving in Ireland in order to prevent “a breakdown in social cohesion,” reports Breaking News.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
