The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O’Donoghue, has pledged to instigate measures to prevent cases like that of the 19 imprisoned Moldovan nationals happening in the future.
Mr John O’Donoghue said that new arrangements had been made with the Department of Employment and the Garda National Immigration Bureau to deal with such cases.
He said that temporary admissions of persons arriving in the State with legitimately obtained work permits for jobs that no longer exist, unbeknownst to them, will be facilitated. This would remove the need for detention based on the person’s prospects of finding employment.
The nineteen Moldovan workers, jailed in Mountjoy prison after they arrived in Ireland on Sunday expecting to find work in a meat factory, were freed by the High Court yesterday. All of the men have since been offered alternative employment.
The men arrived to work in Kildare Chilling Company, Kildare town. However, they were told at Dublin Airport there were no jobs with the company and they could not remain. They had valid visas and work permits for the prospective jobs.
Mr O’Donoghue added that over 18,000 work permits were granted in 2000, and that this was the only incident of this nature to occur.