400 deportation orders issued by O'Donoghue

Almost 400 deportation orders have been issued by the Minister for Justice since a new deportation process came into effect last July.

Mr O'Donoghue told the Dail he was introducing amendments to the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Bill 1999 and to the Immigration Act through the Trafficking Bill.

The legislation contains provisions to speed up deportations, including allowing a garda or immigration officer to detain without warrant a deportee they suspect of intending to avoid removal from the State or of destroying identification papers.

Mr O'Donoghue rejected Opposition criticisms that the measures were "disgraceful and undemocratic".

He believed the changes would lead to higher compliance "without diminution of the rights of individuals". He said it was "grossly misleading of anybody to imply that we are seeking to damage people's human rights".

All he was doing was introducing measures necessary for the effective implementation and enforcement of immigration law.

Since July 1999, 1,218 notifications had been issued of proposals to consider making a deportation order. The notifications invited representations as to why the deportation order should not be issued, and the bulk were sent to failed asylum-seekers.

Of the 1,218 people to whom the notifications were sent, about 60 per cent, or 715, did not respond. The notifications to half of the 715 were returned as undelivered. Eleven people, or 1 per cent, consented to deportation. Another 492 made representations.

Mr O'Donoghue said he had issued 396 deportation orders and arrangements had been made in 198 cases. Supervised departures had occurred in 30 cases and a further seven people left the State before deportation could be effected.

In 60 cases the deportees had initiated judicial review proceedings. Ten other orders had been revoked, mainly on the advice of the Attorney General.

Technical difficulties had held up 48 deportations and a further 32 were being arranged. In the remaining 91 cases, "the deportees have in each case chosen to flout the requirement to turn up at the named Garda station at the appointed time". A further 117 deportees were not at their last known address.

He added that a further 3,000 asylum applicants had abandoned their applications and were no longer in the social welfare system. There was strong basis for speculation that they had left the State or had assumed fresh identities and reapplied for asylum or were still in the State working illegally.

He criticised Mr Joe Higgins (Socialist Party, Dublin West) who, he said, wanted him to open the borders and allow in every individual. "While that would be an achievable ideal in Utopia, it is not an achievable ideal".

Mr Higgins said the Minister was giving draconian powers to the Garda to arrest anyone served with a deportation order. The Minister was "going on an alarmist binge".

Mr Higgins pointed out that they were talking about 12,000 to 14,000 people who were seeking the right to remain in the State.

Mr O'Donoghue also rejected calls for allowing asylum-seekers to work. "I strongly hold the view that the introduction of a concession on the right to work would result in a major increase in the number of applicants coming into the State."

Labour's deputy leader, Mr Brendan Howlin, said it was not right that legislation with implications for human rights should be brought to the House as if the members were "ciphers to rubber-stamp decisions of the executive".

It was the right and prerogative of the Dail to "parse and analyse those proposals for the betterment of the people". It was wrong for the Minister to bring in 3 1/2 pages of amendments which "fundamentally alter the nature" of the issue, just a day before the debate. He pointed out that 85 per cent of asylum-seekers had arrived in the State on the Minister's "watch".

Mr Howlin asked what mechanism the Minister would give to outside groups such as the Refugee Council, which had very strong serious concerns about the amendments the Minister circulated.

The "whole area of the law dealing with asylum-seekers and immigration matters has become a bad patchwork quilt with bits and pieces being grafted on as needs arise. It is a bad way to bring in legislation of this type."

Mr Jim Higgins, Fine Gael's justice spokesman, said the Minister's actions were an "abuse" and what he was doing was ensuring that anyone who was the subject of a deportation order "is under constant surveillance from the moment the deportation order is made".

Mr O'Donoghue stressed that the decision to make a deportation order did not come out of the blue.

The debate was adjourned.