ASYLUM seekers have been kept in prison for up to eight months while awaiting deportation, despite having committed no crime.

The Sunday Tribune has learned a foreign national who had failed in his attempt to gain refugee status was held in custody for 243 days before being return­ed home.

It is understood the man had been held in Cloverhill remand prison before being removed on a charter flight to Africa.

The deportee had served the equivalent of almost a one-year prison sentence, when the standard remission of one-third on all jail terms is taken into account.

The Department of Justice said the average time spent in jail by deportees works out at 33 days per person. None have committed any offence and all could instead have been asked to present at the headquarters of the Garda National Immigration Bureau.

A total of 130 asylum seekers have spent between one day and eight months behind bars since the beginning of last year, the department said.

Fine Gael's Denis Naughten said: "There were a total of 130 people who were being held prior to deportation for a total of 4,290 days. It is understandable that people might be held for a couple of days before being deported but there is certainly no reason why somebody should be held for eight months.

"There is a significant cost to the taxpayer in detaining people for this length of time, as well as the fact that people who have actually committed serious criminal offences are getting out early because there isn't room to keep them.

"In the new Thornton Hall, there is going to be 100 special places for people prior to deportation, which is going to provide capacity for 73,000 days of accommodation.

"Yet in the last year-and-a-half we have had less than 5,000 days worth of accommodation for this purpose. That is going to cost €6m per year to have that wing available when the asylum seeking figures are on the way down. It seems a bizarre decision by the government."

In 2007, 93 people – 79 of whom had claimed asylum – were "detained on foot of immigration warrants and were subsequently deported". So far this year, 97 people – 83 of whom had claimed asylum – were detained in custody. The vast majority were held at Cloverhill or in Dóchas.

Senior gardaí said many of those who were held in custody "presented a serious risk of fleeing the country".