Airlines and ferry companies will have to pay fines of thousands of pounds if they allow people to arrive in Ireland without proper immigration documentation.
The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue, said yesterday he had obtained Government approval for the drafting of new legislation, the Immigration (Carriers' Liability) Bill. The Bill makes it an offence for a carrier to transport into the State passengers without the necessary papers.
"This legislation will be important in assisting to address the problem of illegal immigration into Ireland. The experience is that there has been laxity by some carriers in the checking of documents, and this has allowed persons to enter the State who should not have gained such access. The airlines and ferry companies operating into Ireland will be consulted," Mr O'Donoghue said in a statement.
This offence would be punishable by a fine for each passenger carried without adequate documents. "Carriers' liability is a means of ensuring that carriers transporting passengers into Ireland check that these passengers are in possession of the necessary travel documents before travelling to Ireland," he said.
The amount of the fines has not yet been decided, but it is expected that it will be similar to British law, which has a fine of £2,000 for each passenger.
Mr O'Donoghue said carriers operating within the Common Travel Area with Britain would not be affected on the basis that there was no systematic checking of travel documents for journeys originating in Britain.
Carriers' liability is already in place in many other countries, he said, including most other EU member-states. Most carriers operating into Ireland were already subject to carriers' liability legislation in other jurisdictions.
A Department of Justice spokesman said this legislation did not cover people who were hidden in the back of lorries. Legislation covering this area was recently introduced in Britain penalising truck-drivers who carried people in that way. The spokesman said the possibility of introducing similar legislation here was under review.