Less than one-fifth of people who have received deportation orders so far this year have been removed from the State, according to statistics published by the Department of Justice.

While 736 deportation orders have been made so far in 2018, only 133 people had been removed from the country by October. In 2017, 140 of the 932 people who received deportation orders were removed from the State. In 2016, just over a third of the 1,196 people who received orders to leave were deported.

A total of 9,197 deportation orders have been made since 2011 while only one in five of those who received these orders – 1,857 people – have been deported from Ireland.

Some 5,504 people facing deportation have been granted permission to remain following a re-examination of their case since 2011. Another 2,245 returned home voluntarily. So far this year, 174 people facing deportation have chosen to leave voluntarily.

The State has spent more than €4.4 million on deportation flight costs over the past eight years.

The majority of those deported from Ireland are sent back via commercial flights. However, in certain circumstances, when “the operational requirements require it”, a chartered flight may be used in deportations, according to the Department of Justice.

‘More humane’ Labour leader Brendan Howlin called on Monday for a more “humane” and “regularised system” when it comes to applications for asylum and deportation orders, warning that the “constant threat of a deportation order” was “horrifying” for recipients.

Citing the recent cases of schoolboys Eric Zhi Ying Xue from Bray and Nonso Muojeke from Offaly, Mr Howlin argued that children who have spent their lives in Ireland but are facing deportation because of the status of their parents should not have to rely on the “ear of a local cabinet Minister” or large scale campaigns to ensure protection.

“It can’t be so arbitrary as catching the ear of a Government Minister, we need a much more humane and regularised system,” the Labour leader told The Irish Times, adding that claims that children like Eric were not Irish were “unacceptable”.

Rights of children “Just because his mother hasn’t been regularised he can’t be regularised. But he’s Irish in every sense of Irishness. He was born and raised in this country and has total affinity to this country. The rights of children should not be determined by the status of their parents.”

Mr Howlin criticised the Government for failing to recognise the humanity of those facing deportation from Ireland while simultaneously calling for the regularisation of the undocumented Irish in the United States. He also called for the urgent need to streamline the State’s asylum process.