There was some confusion yesterday about the circumstances surrounding the detention of a Senegalese-born singer and his band hours before a performance on Monday in Dublin.
Mr Youssou N'Dour (43) was held at Dublin Airport for around two hours on Monday afternoon along with 14 colleagues who immigration gardaí say did not have proper documents to enter the country.
There were conflicting versions yesterday of the exact documents which Mr N'Dour and his group, The Super Étoiles of Dhakar, lacked. The head of the Garda National Immigration Bureau, Chief Supt Martin Donnellan, said Mr N'Dour did not have the necessary work permit to perform here. He said the singer did not require a visa as he was a US citizen and that he told gardaí he was here on vacation.
Mr N'Dour's companions had work permits and "Schengen" visas, which are valid for several EU countries but not Ireland, he added. "If these people had proper visas and permits to enter here in the first place there would have been no difficulty," he added.
However, a spokeswoman for the Red Box where the band performed said the group had been told by the "immigration office" that they did not need visas for Ireland. She said they had been issued a group work permit which included Mr N'Dour.
Mr N'Dour's concert was delayed by some 90 minutes as a result of the detention after he arrived with his band from London at 1 p.m. The group were released at around 3 p.m. after discussions between officers from the Garda National Immigration Bureau and senior Department of Justice officials, according to Chief Supt Donnellan.