{"id":465223,"date":"2026-05-24T20:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T20:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/465223\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T20:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T20:14:09","slug":"thirty-four-men-deported-to-poland-and-lithuania-from-ireland-on-grounds-of-criminality-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/465223\/","title":{"rendered":"Thirty-four men deported to Poland and Lithuania from Ireland on grounds of criminality \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A total of 34 men were deported from Ireland to Poland<\/a> and Lithuania<\/a> on Sunday on the grounds of criminality, Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> has said.<\/p>\n

According to the Minister, the charter removal flight had 22 Polish and 12 Lithuanian nationals on board, ranging in age from mid-twenties to mid-sixties.<\/p>\n

Re-entry bans of up to 10 years have been applied to prevent their return to Ireland.<\/p>\n

All those removed as part of this operation had received custodial sentences for a range of criminal offences, the department said.<\/p>\n

Twenty-five individuals were currently serving prison sentences and were removed directly from Irish Prison Service custody. The other nine individuals were arrested and detained from communities across Ireland and were lodged in prison prior to their removal.<\/p>\n

The flight departed Dublin Airport<\/a> on Sunday, 24 May 2026 and landed in Warsaw, Poland at about 15.45 Irish time, and subsequently arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania at about 17:50 Irish time.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s flight brings the total number of people removed under the Free Movement Directive to 88 so far in 2026. This is up from the 56 individuals deported in 2025.<\/p>\n

Under this directive, the Minister for Justice can issue orders for both removal and exclusion of an EU citizen or their family member who represents a danger to public policy, security or health.<\/p>\n

The Department of Justice said the charter was conducted in \u201cclose co-operation with An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na and the Irish Prison Service\u201d.<\/p>\n

The costs for the provision of the aircraft for this operation are \u20ac184,465.00 (ex VAT) for a return flight.<\/p>\n

Garda personnel, medical staff, interpreters and a human rights observer accompanied the returnees.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the charter, the Minister said European citizens have the right to freedom of movement and restrictions are \u201cnot something I take lightly\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there must be consequences for people whose behaviour means they should no longer enjoy this privilege,\u201d O\u2019Callaghan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will take action if our laws are not upheld. This includes enforcing removal orders for people involved in criminality and for those who pose a danger to society. Today\u2019s operation underpins my commitment in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan said the \u201cvast majority\u201d of Polish and Lithuanian nationals in Ireland \u201crespect our laws and are valuable members of our society\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to extend my thanks to the members of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na, as well as officials from my Department, for their dedicated work in completing this operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number of people removed from the country under this directive has increased significantly in recent years.<\/p>\n

According to the Department, in 2023 there were 21 people whose removal from the State was enforced by the Garda National Immigration Bureau, dropping slightly to 18 in 2024 before rising to 56 last year. <\/p>\n

This year\u2019s figure to date has already surpassed the 2025 12-month total.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Pork sausages served on flight deporting 24 men from Ireland to PakistanOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A total of 34 men were deported from Ireland to Poland and Lithuania on Sunday on the grounds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9691,11900,61,60,18573,8871,43,2850],"class_list":["post-465223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-department-of-justice","tag-dublin-airport","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jim-ocallaghan","tag-lithuania","tag-news","tag-poland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}