Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has asked the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee for “the evidence that exists of passports or other international travel documents being thrown in bins or flushed down toilets in State airports.”
In her reply to the Dublin West TD the minister said she has been advised that instances arise whereby passengers present documentation to carriers at the point of embarkation which is sometimes false or inadequate “and then seek to destroy or conceal that documentation before they arrive at border control.”
She went on note that “this is evidenced by operational experience and, on occasion, the discovery of concealed or destroyed documentation on board airplanes or at points between disembarkation from airlines and border control.”
Minister McEntee said The Border Management Unit (BMU) of her Department and the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) have an ongoing intelligence-led programme of operations at airplanes to detect passengers who may attempt to destroy or conceal documents inflight and to identify the point of embarkation of undocumented passengers.
Gript has previously reported questions and comments raised by Clare TD and MEP-elect Michael McNamara to the Minister Darragh O’Brien.
Mr McNamara highlighted that despite it being a criminal offence to enter the State without valid travel documents, the law is “not being applied.”
He went onto inform Minister O’Brien that “in 2023, 3,285 people presented at Dublin Airport without valid travel documents. In 2022, it was 4,968.”
“Under Section 11 of the Immigration Act 2004, it is an offence to embark in Ireland without valid travel documents.
In her response to Leo Varadkar this week however, Minister McEntee repeated her claim that An Garda Síochána has prosecuted over 100 people in 2024 for arriving without appropriate documentation.
She also claimed that her Department has recorded a 34% reduction in 2023 in the number of persons arriving in the State without the correct documentation while Q1 in 2024 has seen a further reduction in the numbers arriving without documentation.