One of the Turkish stowaways found inside a freight container in Wexford in which eight people perished last December has said planned fines for companies transporting undocumented migrants into Ireland would force more families like his to risk death at the hands of smugglers.
Mr Eyup Isik (17) has been granted humanitarian leave to remain in Ireland, along with his brother who has moved here from England and two other survivors of the tragic incident. It is understood that another survivor has applied to the Minister for Justice for the same status.
Mr Isik yesterday backed calls by human rights groups for the Government to abandon plans to introduce €3,000 fines for airline and ferry companies found transporting migrants without proper travel documents.
Speaking through a translator, Mr Isik recalled his fear and panic inside the sealed container which sailed from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. He said he had paid smugglers to bring him to seek work in the UK, which already has such fines in place. The container was mistakenly transported by sea to Ireland and arrived in Wexford last December with only five survivors.
"People in Ireland have been very good to me since December, but if you have the same law as the UK you will force more families like mine to go to smugglers," he said in a prepared statement presented at a press conference yesterday.
"You will make more families get into containers. You will have more deaths and more people like me left without people they love."
The groups opposed to the planned penalties in a recently published Bill include Amnesty International, the Irish Refugee Council, the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. They said the fines would be "a new low for Ireland's respect for the right to seek asylum from persecution".
Under the Immigration Bill, 2002, carriers convicted of an offence will face a fixed fine of €3,000 for each non-national seeking to land in Ireland or transit through a port without a valid passport and, if necessary, a visa.
Hauliers are not included in the sanctions, but have agreed a separate code of practice with the Government aimed at preventing undocumented migrants entering Ireland hidden in vehicles.
The groups yesterday urged the Government to drop its plans, despite its recent commitment to participate in a Europe-wide convention which obliges it to impose such penalties, which already exist in all other EU member-states.
Mr Dug Cubie from the Irish Refugee Council said it had been shown all across Europe that people who were not able to travel through normal routes would resort to smugglers. "This will result in further tragedies like we saw in Wexford," he said.
Ms Esther Lynch from ICTU said it was internationally recognised that people fleeing persecution often did not have proper travel documents. "This Bill tramples on fundamental human rights to seek asylum as a refugee," she said.
It also placed an "inappropriate" burden on airline and ferry company employees who would have to make impossible choices about people's right to board their aircraft or vessels. "Making transport staff responsible for immigration controls is simply unfair," she added.
Mr Séan Love from Amnesty International's Irish section said the Government should defy its EU obligations and let the European Union take it to the European Court of Justice over the issue.