Confusion mounts on transfer of asylum seekers from NI

There is confusion this evening as to why nine asylum seekers returned to the Republic from Northern Ireland without being met by Irish authorities.

They were left outside the Garda station in the village of Dromad, Co Louth by British immigration authorities shortly after 1 a.m. last Wednesday.

According to a British Home Office spokeswoman "standard operating procedure" is that Irish Immigration officials would be contacted every time asylum seekers were being transferred from one jurisdiction to the other.

"As per standard operating procedure they were dropped at Dromad Garda Station, in a village that has public telephones and a hotel etc. Irish immigration officials would have been contacted. But if the officials on the other side of the Border don't respond there is nothing more we can do," she said.

The apparent communication breakdown was underlined by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, who confirmed today that "there have been no instances where illegal immigrants from Northern Ireland have been returned to this jurisdiction in the absence of prior consultation between the immigration authorities in both jurisdictions."

However, a spokeswoman for Garda HQ told ireland.comtoday that nine foreign nationals were reported "to be wandering around a car park in Dromad at one in the morning" on Wednesday July 2nd.

The call notifying gardaí as to the whereabouts of the four adults and five children was made by a member of the public in Dromad and not British or Irish Immigration authorities, she said. The adults were arrested and released shortly afterwards, the spokeswoman added.

The asylum seekers are registered in Ireland. It is understood they were stopped prior to boarding a flight from Belfast to London by British immigration authorities.

Under the Dublin Convention, a treaty between EU governments, asylum applications are considered by the country the applicants first enter.

The Refugee Act (1996) states that asylum applicants in the State are prohibited from leaving the Republic without the permission of the Minister. To do so is a criminal offence.

British officials said they have conducted two joint operations with Irish Immigration officers in recent weeks which identified 177 immigration offenders in Northern Ireland. Seventy of these have been returned to the Republic.