A Tipperary man who helped set up the Garda National Immigration Bureau says International Protections Applicants have to be let into the country whether they have documentation or not.
There’s been criticism of the government for housing asylum seekers in Tipperary and calls for them to be fully vetted before being brought into the county but former Senior Garda John O’Shea says that is simply not possible.
John – who is is well known locally for his involvement with the Tipperary GAA County Board – says refugees often have to use fake travel and identity documents to leave their home country and to get to Ireland.
But he says we are still obliged under international law to take them in so see if their application for International Protection is justified.
John’s been explaining on Tipp Today how if someone’s travelling on fake documents that they are taken off them or destroyed before the person gets to the immigration desk:
”In many cases there would be fake documents. Most airline people, they are not document experts. So you know, when you’re checking in at an airline, you’re coming back from Amsterdam (for example), you’re checking at the Air Lingus desk or at the Ryanair desk, you have your boarding card and your passport. You show the passport, you look like the guy in the formula, and you get on the plane.
And the passports are then collected on board are playing by an individual who is legal, or they may be flushed down the toilet, or they may be torn up,” he said.
John’s been telling Fran Curry that anyone who is critical of the government or the Minister for Justice for bringing IPAs to Tipperary without vetting them first either doesn’t understand the system or is just trying to score political points:
”I wouldn’t be a political person at all, but blaming the Minister for justice for that,
or whoever it may be, him or her, is not on. That’s scoring political points. And the immigration officer, he has got to take that application.”
