Twenty asylum-seekers have been granted temporary exit and re-entry visas to travel to Britain for abortions this year.
Figures from the Department of Justice, released under the Freedom of Information legislation, indicate this is twice as many as in the whole of last year. Ten women were granted temporary exit and re-entry visas to enable them to procure abortions last year.
Eight such temporary exit visas were granted to asylum- seeking women to procure abortions in Britain in 2001 and two were granted in 2000.
In July the Department said that such temporary exit and re-entry visas were granted only as an "extremely exceptional" measure.
Ms Catherine Heaney, chief executive of the Irish Family Planning Association, expressed concern that many women who were in the asylum process and who had a crisis pregnancy were risking their applications by trying to "sneak" out of the State and back again to have abortions.
"We're sure there are women who don't know about this procedure of getting a temporary visa or who experience difficulty getting one who then try and go without."
A number of women who have travelled with the correct documentation to re-enter the State, but have tried to come back through Northern Ireland, have been stopped by immigration officials in Belfast and detained in Macebearer prison.
She also said the association's pregnancy counsellors had come into contact with many immigrant women who wanted to terminate their pregnancy but were "frustrated and surprised" that they had to travel to do so.
