The Minister for Justice has rejected a claim by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees that asylum-seekers would be forced into the hands of smugglers and traffickers by the introduction of fines for carriers bringing undocumented migrants to the State, writes Nuala Haughey, Social and Racial Affairs Correspondent.
The UNHCR wants changes to this part of the Immigration Bill, currently going through the Oireachtas, to ensure that it meets international refugee protection principles.
In a document circulated to politicians last week, it predicted that the Bill's provision to fine airlines and ferry companies which transport undocumented migrants to the State will drive refugees into the hands of smugglers and traffickers, as has happened in other states.
The UNHCR said that carriers should be exempt from the fines of up to €3,000 per immigrant if the person they transport is an asylum-seeker or refugee.
Mr McDowell said he welcomed the UNHCR's comments on the Bill and recognised the important role of its Dublin office in working with his Department and other bodies to examine individual asylum claims and develop both practical and policy aspects of asylum in Ireland.
It was in this "spirit of co-operation" that he wanted to remove any doubts about the purpose of, and need for, this legislation. The planned carrier fines were an important immigration control measure "designed to curb illegal entry to the State and required as part of our EU obligations in combating illegal immigration". All of our EU partners already had similar arrangements in place.
He did not accept UNHCR's criticism that this measure would force asylum-seekers into the hands of people-smugglers. "The fact is that this branch of international organised crime already has a firm grip on that traffic, and I make no apology for putting in place as system which will make that particularly reprehensible form of exploitative activity more difficult for the criminals who engage in it."
He said that the UNHCR's suggestion to exempt carriers from fines where the person brought to the State without proper documentation is an asylum-seeker would "make the proposed controls unworkable and encourage the making of false asylum claims at an even higher rate than, sadly, exists in Ireland at present.
"Such an arrangement would, as well as offering carriers an easy means of circumventing the controls, act to the detriment of those genuinely in need of protection by overburdening the resources of the independent bodies which examine asylum applications with speculative and unfounded claims."
Mr McDowell added that the Bill did not compromise the State's international obligation to offer protection to anyone on its territory who needed it; it put this guarantee on a statutory footing.
"The Government is committed to co-operating with UNHCR in ensuring that those who are genuinely in need of the protection of the State get that protection as soon as possible after they arrive in the State."