Legal provision for 'summary' deportations a myth - Minister

MINISTER FOR Justice Dermot Ahern said he wanted to dispel the myth that immigration legislation provided for the “summary deportation” of foreign nationals.

The legislation, he said, made clear that the removal of a foreign national from the State would only arise where the person concerned, being unlawfully present in the State, had demonstrably failed to comply with obligations concerning his or her presence.

Introducing the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill, the Minister said it was designed to cater for the different types of decisions that arose at various stages of the immigration process.

“Foreign nationals affected by any decisions giving rise to such reviews have the option to seek judicial review of those decisions by the courts where they consider that there has been a procedural irregularity,’’ said Mr Ahern.

“The intention is to strike a fair balance between facilitating the persons concerned in putting their affairs in order in advance of leaving the State or being removed while, at the same time, providing for efficient operation of the State’s immigration laws.’’

Mr Ahern said a good deal of the Bill’s policy would be fleshed out in regulations, adding that other countries, such as the UK, Australia and Canada, also made extensive use of subsidiary legislation for putting their policies into effect.

One of the Bill’s core principles, he said, was that a foreign national would be lawfully present in the State only if he or she had a current valid entry or residence permission to be there.

If a personal was unlawfully there, then he or she would be under “an immediate and continuing obligation to leave”.

Fine Gael justice spokesman Alan Shatter said the Bill failed to adequately address the human rights of immigrants and their families and the rights of Irish citizens to a full family life in circumstances in which their spouse was neither a citizen of the State nor of any other EU country.

Labour’s Pat Rabbitte said that, within certain conditions, his party would seek to amend the Bill to address the central issue of the right of family reunification.

Sinn Féin’s Aengus Ó Snodaigh said there was no provision for permanent residency. “The most that is on offer is permission to remain for five years.’’ It is hard to believe a small number of people, whose renewal would not be approved, justified forcing everybody to continuously apply for residency, he added.