On November 10, Gript reported on the fact that the Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, was unable to provide details of the numbers of people who had been issued with deportation orders to leave the state and who were allowed to make their own arrangements to leave.
A response to a Parliamentary Question from Carol Nolan, Rural Independent TD for Laois/Offaly, has revealed that just 26 of 271 orders issued in 2022 had been enforced. In her response to that query Minister McEntee stated that she was confident that “the majority of people do leave the country.” This is despite the apparent lack of checks in place to ensure that those who were ordered to leave – and who were allowed to make their own arrangements to depart – had actually left the jurisdiction.
This year, 761 deportation orders were issued between the end of January and the end of September.
As we previously discussed, of that number, just 30 had been “effected”. That is to say, that the state authorities actually enforced the deportation order rather than leaving it up to the person themselves.
Now we know that a mere 25 people who were issued with a deportation order this year (to November 13) have actually notified the state that they had “self-deported.”
That means that the vast majority of those who have been issued with a deportation order this year – and we only have the number of orders made for eight months – are either still in the state or have left without notifying the state.
There is an astounding difference between what the Minister claimed – the majority issued with deportation orders do leave the country – and the reality – that the state simply doesn’t know how many of these people are still in the country.
In her response to Deputy Nolan on November 16, the Minister states that “a person subject to a deportation order has no legal basis to remain in the state. Their case to remain in the state has been considered in detail and all available appeal processes have been exhausted.” And yet it is noticeable too that the Minister in her response last week no longer claimed that “the majority” of those told to go home have done so voluntarily, but that “many people comply in this manner and leave the country.”
It would be more accurate to say that some are forced to leave, and the Irish state assumes, or at least tells the public that they assume, that the majority of the rest leave without actually having any way of knowing if they’re right.
And we are now told that the State has only been notified about 25 people who self-deported this year to date. We simply don’t know about the others.
In any event, it ought not be up to the whim of the person told to leave. Not only are they illegally here, but a considerable number of them have committed criminal offences in the state, including offences of a serious manner.
Indeed, it is possible that many of those who have been issued with a deportation order only came to the attention of the authorities as illegal immigrants after being arrested for and even convicted of criminal offences.
The figures supplied by the Minister also appear to contradict those given previously. An Irish Times piece in October 2018 claimed on the basis of Department of Justice statistics that 174 people who had been issued with deportation orders in 2018 “have chosen to leave voluntarily.” Yet, as is apparent from the table above, just 78 of those issued with a deportation order are known to have “self-deported” in 2018.
The Irish Times piece by Sorcha Pollak also stated that 2,245 people who had been issued with a deportation order between 2011 and October 2018 had “returned home voluntarily.” It would seem not, as the Minister’s Department is only aware of 851 people leaving voluntarily over that period – a third of the number claimed.
So is the discrepancy explained simply by the fact that someone issued with a deportation order tells The Man “Oh yeah, I have me ticket booked for Gatwick next Thursday. I won’t be bothering you again,” and then just staying here anyway? Such lies must be disappointing.
The whole thing is clearly a mess. I could write a book filled with official statistics, most of which seem to be mutually contradictory when examined in detail. Gript merely relays the facts as told to elected representatives who are asking the right questions, and from Freedom of Information responses received by ourselves and others.
It would take a considerable investment of resources to get to the bottom of it all. Gript will continue to do its part. Perhaps those “fact checkers” who get millions from the EU, various state and intelligence connected agencies, and billionaire Woke funds, might drag themselves away from Tik Tok and Telegram long enough to do so one of these days?
And perhaps when the consequences of this abnegation of the state’s duty to protect its citizens end in tragedy, the state media and others might desist from ignoring, and even censoring, the facts of what is going on, and what people think and say about what is going on.
The Minister of Justice has been taken for a ride by many poorly educated people that should have been deported. If they were the brightest and best from their respective countries they would have applied and got jobs through the normal channels.
Let’s assume that the minister for justice and her cabinet colleagues are not complete cretins. It therefore follows that this is a situation that they want. They don’t want to deport any of the freeloaders. They only want to lie to you about deportation. Don’t vote for any of these lying trators.
We need a new generation of politicians – not green out of school or tertiary training but with experience of holding down responsible and productive jobs outside of the public sector – who will be prepared to give up some years to serve the country. Perhaps term limits would help and no political dynasties.
Saying she does not know if they are in the country is not credible. She can find out with the touch of a button. When her government continue to give Social Welfare benefits to supposed deportees, they are recognising their presence here. Anyone served with a deportation order should have their social welfare benefits and other freebies cut off at the same time. That would get rid of them. The government are refusing to do this because they want them to stay. Nothing but defensive waffle and fudge coming from McEntee when asked about it.