CARRIER FINES: Irish Ferries and other carriers will soon be fined for undocumented migrants they transport to Ireland, writes Nuala Haughey.
The Immigration Bill 2002 places a heavy onus on commercial carriers to ensure all their passengers have valid travel documents, and that vessels, aircraft or vehicles are secured against entry by stowaways.
Such measures, which exist in all other EU states, have been criticised here by refugee lobby groups, who claim this approach will only drive desperate people further into the hands of smugglers.
Critics say many asylum-seekers do not have proper travel documents and such laws may wrongly bar them from making applications for protection as refugees in Ireland.
They say a law designed to catch illegal immigrants runs the risk of also preventing people fleeing persecution from seeking protection here. The authorities insist that people arriving in Ireland to claim asylum will still be entitled to have their claims processed.
If carrier sanctions had been in place at the weekend when the Dumitrus family arrived in Ireland on fake Czech documents, then Irish Ferries could be facing a hefty fine. Four other undocumented migrants were also detected by gardaí after disembarking from the same sailing to Rosslare port in Co Wexford from France last Friday.
The carriers legislation has been flagged for years, with the former minister for justice, Mr O'Donoghue, announcing its imminent introduction in November 1999.
Despite the ongoing objections to them, carriers sanctions appear to be an inevitable part of Ireland's coming of age as a country which is attractive to immigrants, be they asylum-seekers, documented workers or undocumented economic migrants.
In the long lead-in to the law's enactment, Irish Ferries personnel were the first to receive training by immigration gardaí in how to identify fake travel documents. The aim of this training, which started more than two years ago, was to prevent people with false or forged documents from boarding vessels in Cherbourg in the first place. It has led to a sharp decline in the numbers of asylum claims made in Rosslare port.
The onus placed on commercial carriers by carriers sanctions is heavy, obliging them to act as quasi-immigration officials.
"We are a ferry operator - we're not immigration experts and we don't think our staff would claim to be experts in identifying false documents," said a spokesman for Irish Ferries yesterday. He said that in advance of the law's enactment, the company was at great pains to point out to the authorities its limitations in this area.