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The number of asylum seekers arriving in Ireland with documents including UK driving licences has prompted Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan to say that “a lot” of such documentation is now being uncovered, as around 78% of applicants continue to arrive from the UK.
Speaking in the Dáil during an exchange with Matt Carthy, the Fianna Fáil Minister said the recently commenced International Protection Act was already producing results, describing the figures as moving in the “right direction” while stressing that it was still “very early stages”.
O’Callaghan said the legislation, which came into effect on June 12th, had coincided with a significant reduction in asylum applications.
“Since 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.
“I do not want it to be understood that will inevitably continue, but that is the case in the very early days of the scheme.”
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.
Describing what officials had been finding during those searches, O’Callaghan said documentation connected to the UK was frequently being recovered.
“I 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,” he said.
“We 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.”
The Minister also provided updated figures on the routes being used by asylum applicants arriving in Ireland.
“On 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,” he said.
“That 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.”
Carthy questioned what practical effect the discoveries would have without a bilateral returns agreement between Ireland and the United Kingdom.
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.
“The question was what progress has been made on a returns policy and only in his last four words did the Minister mention ‘the issue of returns’,” Carthy said.
“The Minister has no power to do anything about that because there is no bilateral returns policy in place.”
O’Callaghan later clarified that while UK driving licences had been recovered, the passports found were not British passports.
“There were examples where UK driving licences were found,” he said.
“The passports were not UK passports.”
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.
Addressing negotiations with the British Government, O’Callaghan said he wanted such an arrangement to be put in place but accepted that Ireland could not compel the UK to participate.
“I have designated the UK a safe third country,” he said.
“I 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.”
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.
He said one case had highlighted the need for closer cooperation between both countries.
“The 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,” he said.
“The 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.”
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.
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.
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