The number of asylum seekers arriving in Ireland with documents including UK driving licences has prompted Justice Minister Jim O\u2019Callaghan to say that \u201ca lot\u201d of such documentation is now being uncovered, as around 78% of applicants continue to arrive from the UK.<\/p>\n
Speaking in the D\u00e1il during an exchange with Matt Carthy, the Fianna F\u00e1il Minister said the recently commenced International Protection Act was already producing results, describing the figures as moving in the \u201cright direction\u201d while stressing that it was still \u201cvery early stages\u201d.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Callaghan said the legislation, which came into effect on June 12th, had coincided with a significant reduction in asylum applications.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the previous occasion that the Deputy and I engaged across the House on these questions, the International Protection Act has commenced. It commenced on June 12th. These are very early stages. We are not even three weeks into it but the statistics I am seeing show that the number of asylum applicants coming to Ireland is down considerably.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not want it to be understood that will inevitably continue, but that is the case in the very early days of the scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Minister said he believed the reduction was linked to expanded search powers introduced under the legislation, which allow authorities to examine the baggage and luggage of people arriving in the State.<\/p>\n
Describing what officials had been finding during those searches, O\u2019Callaghan said documentation connected to the UK was frequently being recovered.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe the reason it is happening is because of the increased powers in the International Protection Act, including the ability to search the baggage and luggage of individuals who come here to find documentation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have found a lot of documentation, such as UK driving licences and passports. It is a much more vigorous system. Notwithstanding the fact that the Deputy opposed it, it is improving the situation for us at present.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Minister also provided updated figures on the routes being used by asylum applicants arriving in Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the situation with the UK, it was the case that 90% of applicants or more were coming in directly at the port and coming over the Border,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat has reduced according to the figures over the past two and a half weeks but, again, it is very early stages. It is in the region of 78% of much smaller numbers. It is going in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carthy questioned what practical effect the discoveries would have without a bilateral returns agreement between Ireland and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
He noted that people were being found with British documentation but argued that the Government currently lacked the legal mechanism to return them to the UK.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question was what progress has been made on a returns policy and only in his last four words did the Minister mention \u2018the issue of returns\u2019,\u201d Carthy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Minister has no power to do anything about that because there is no bilateral returns policy in place.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Callaghan later clarified that while UK driving licences had been recovered, the passports found were not British passports.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were examples where UK driving licences were found,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe passports were not UK passports.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Minister said the new legislation would make returns to EU member states easier under the EU migration pact, but acknowledged that Ireland remained unable to return asylum applicants to the UK without a separate bilateral agreement.<\/p>\n
Addressing negotiations with the British Government, O\u2019Callaghan said he wanted such an arrangement to be put in place but accepted that Ireland could not compel the UK to participate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have designated the UK a safe third country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to see operationalisation of an agreement between the UK and Ireland for returns. However, I cannot force the UK to recommence an agreement or to start accepting people back if it does not agree to do so. I have limited powers in what I can do. I can say I want to do it but I cannot force the Home Secretary or the British Government to enter into an agreement with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later in the exchange, the Minister said he had discussed the issue directly with the UK Home Secretary following riots in Belfast last month over a high-profile near-beheading that had taken place.<\/p>\n
He said one case had highlighted the need for closer cooperation between both countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason that was of particular interest to her was because the suspect in that case was somebody who had landed at Dublin Airport, coming from Luxembourg, claimed asylum in Dublin and then left Dublin the very same day for Belfast,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next day in Belfast, he claimed asylum there. I said to the Home Secretary that this is an example of why we need a returns agreement in place.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Government designated the United Kingdom a safe third country last year, allowing asylum applications to be deemed inadmissible where an applicant has a sufficient connection to the UK. However, the designation does not itself create a mechanism for returning applicants there.<\/p>\n
Ministers have repeatedly stated in recent months that the large majority of people seeking international protection in Ireland travel through the UK before making their applications. The Government has been seeking closer cooperation with Britain on data sharing, border policing and returns, but no bilateral returns agreement has yet been concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The number of asylum seekers arriving in Ireland with documents including UK driving licences has prompted Justice Minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[62040,14258,61,1629,60,6830,43],"class_list":["post-535866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-asylum","tag-ben-scallan","tag-ie","tag-immigration","tag-ireland","tag-migration","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535866","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=535866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}