A total of 132 people who were illegally residing in Ireland were deported from the State last year.
Detective Chief Superintendent Aidan Minnock, head of the Garda National Immigration Bureau, revealed this figure to the Irish Independent and said that he would expect deportation numbers to increase next year.
Chartered flights will be used by the State to facilitate this increase.
'Lost sight of who these people are'
On Late Breakfast, journalist and author Valerie Cox said we have ‘lost sight entirely of who these people are’.
“This morning, of course, we have the news from the Gardaí that there is no unvetted asylum seekers in Ireland,” she said.
“Now, I actually find that quite difficult to believe, because I think if that information had come out earlier and we’d been given the details and so on, you wouldn’t have so much of this anti-immigrant feeling.
“Then you kind of wonder, you know, are people entitled to make a run for it and to try and get out of a horrible situation?
“I mean, climate change is making their lives unbearable – we've seen the stories from Sudan recently, where nothing is growing, babies are dying, they’re facing massive famines.
“Are people entitled to get out of those situations? I think they are.”
Food and other items are distributed in Chad to people who have fled violence in Sudan. Picture by: © UNHCR/Colin DelfosseSpokesperson for the Communication Clinic Lorcan Nyhan said that the ‘vast, vast majority of people’ immigrate to Ireland through legal systems.
“There are people who are going through the process, they’re being processed through it, and then when they don’t pass that process, that’s what the chartered flights are going to be for,” he said.
“[At the moment] there is some voluntary deportation and then there is deportation by the State as well – and those numbers are increasing."
Mr Nyhan said there shouldn’t be a huge distinction made between economic migration and other migration "if it’s done right".
Featured image: A hunger strike outside Leinster House demanding protection for South Africans in Ireland. Photo: Liam Murphy / Alamy. October 22, 2024.
