Applications for International Protection, from Pakistan, will be accelerated and prioritised with effect from today, Tuesday July 29th.
The Irish government has today announced that Pakistan will be added to the list of countries subject to accelerated processing for international protection applications.
Under an accelerated decision-making process, introduced in November 2022, international protection applicants that fall under this procedure are receiving first decisions in around four months and this is expected to reduce in the coming months.
Applications from Pakistan have grown considerably in recent years and in each of the last two quarters, Pakistan nationals have ranked as the second highest nationality for applications for international protection.
Section 73 (1) of the International Protection Act 2015 allows for the Minister to accord priority to any application, or to request the Chairperson of IPAT to accord priority to any appeal, having regard to criteria set down in Sec. 73 (2). Section 73A, allows for accelerated processing of cases having regard to the criteria set down in Sec.73 (2).
Accelerated processing for certain IP applications was introduced in November 2022. From today, Tuesday, July 26th 2025 it applies to:
Applicants from 15 safe countries of origin, namely Albania, Algeria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Egypt, Georgia, India, Kosovo, Malawi & Morocco, Macedonia (latter former Yugoslav Republic), Montenegro, Serbia, South Africa, Nigeria and Pakistan.
The table hereunder shows the number of international protection applications from Pakistan from 2021 to July 24th, 2025.
| Year. | 2021. | 2022. | 2023. | 2024. | 2025. | Total. |
| Pakistan. | 68. | 242. | 624. | 1,391. | 905. | 3,230. |
All figures shown above are correct at time of issue, however, all statistics may be subject to data cleansing.
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