A total of 6,444 non-EU nationals were refused permission to land in the State for the past 17 months, according to figures released by the Minister for Justice.
Mr McDowell also revealed that since 1999, when the Immigration Act came into effect, 1,301 people have been deported at a total cost of €4,072,850. And statistics from his Department show that 33 people from EU accession countries were deported in the past four months.
However, 481 applications for family reunifications were granted to immigrants who have refugee status, since the beginning of last year. The Minister was replying to a series of written questions from Government and Opposition TDs.
He said that the more than €4 million cost of deportations did not include Garda overtime or subsistence payments, but included the cost of three charter flights in 2002, one to Algeria and two to Nigeria at a combined cost of €364,495.
Mr John Dennehy (FF, Cork South-Central) had asked about the "seemingly inordinate cost sometimes incurred in enforcing deportation orders". While Mr McDowell agreed that deportation could be costly, particularly for African and Asian countries and because most flights had to be booked at short notice, he defended the practice because not to enforce deportations "would call into question the integrity of the entire immigration system".
This "would leave this country open to further illegal immigration and even more expense to taxpayers. I am determined that this should not happen," he insisted.
The Minister informed Mr Ciaran Cuffe (Greens, Dún Laoghaire) in another written reply that 4,417 people were last year not allowed land in the State, and 2,027 were refused permission to land in the first five months of this year.
With reference to the deportation of citizens from EU applicant countries, he said that freedom of movement for EU citizens was not an "absolute right".
Mr Aengus Ó Snodaigh (SF, Dublin South-Central) had asked if deported citizens from the accession countries would be allowed back in the State from May next year when the countries become EU member-states.
Nationals of EU accession countries who were deported, "cannot expect to be automatically allowed to re-enter the State" from May next year when their countries become member- states, the Minister said. Freedom of movement for EU citizens "is subject to limitations justified on grounds of public policy, public security and public health". Of the 10 applicant countries, 13 Polish nationals, seven people from Lithuania, six from the Czech Republic, four from Estonia and three from Latvia have been deported.
The Minister told Mr Dan Boyle (GP, Cork South-Central) that last year 353 family reunifications were granted for people who have refugee status in the State. In the same period 40 such applications were refused.
In the first five months of this year 129 applications were granted, while 112 were refused.
