More than 60 asylum-seekers living in the Republic have received permission to travel to the UK for abortions since 2000, according to new figures from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
Although most of the applications were granted last year, figures for the first seven months of 2004 indicate the number of exit and re-entry visas being issued for abortions is now levelling off.
The figures, which were obtained by The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act, showed that in 2002, 10 asylum-seekers were granted travel documents to exit and re-enter the State "for the purposes of obtaining an abortion abroad".
In 2003 the figure was 33. But in the year to July 31st, 2004, only 10 asylum-seekers had received temporary travel documents for the same purposes - a decline of about 50 per cent on the same period last year.
Previous figures issued by the Department showed eight women were granted visas in 2001 and two in 2000.
The fall-off in applications for such travel documents coincides with a sharp decline in the number of asylum-seekers coming to Ireland. Some 1,256 applications were received in the first three months of 2004, compared to 2,818 in the same period last year.
Recent figures from the UK Department of Health indicate that the number of Irish women travelling to the UK for abortions is also falling. A total of 6,320 women providing Irish addresses had terminations in England and Wales last year - a drop of just over 200 on the previous year.
Of the 6,522 women who travelled to the UK for abortions in 2002, more than a third (2,258) fell in the 20- to 24-year-old age bracket, according to revised figures from the UK Department of Health. Some 56 of the women who travelled that year were aged under 16 years.
