A new block at Cloverhill remand prison is to be used to accommodate people refused entry into Ireland while they await a return flight to their country of origin, the Department of Justice has said.
Work has been completed on Block F where people refused leave to land can be housed in Cloverhill separately from people on remand, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said in response to a parliamentary question on the matter.
However, the block is currently being used as a Covid-19 isolation unit for prisoners and will continue to be used in this way until the pandemic is over, said the Minister.
At that point “Block F will revert to its original intended use, subject to the availability of staff and the impact on resources”, she said.
The department is also starting work on the “consideration of a longer-term sustainable and compliant solution” for people refused entry, Ms McEntee added in her response to questions from Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon.
Asked whether the accommodation facilities at the recently refurbished Transaer House Garda station at Dublin airport, which were earmarked to be used as a dedicated immigration detention unit, were operational yet, the Minister said the four one-person cells had “not been fully commissioned at this time”.
“It is intended that the GNIB [Garda National Immigration Bureau] will detain persons refused leave to land overnight at the Dublin airport Garda station when the detention facilities are fully commissioned.”
Detaining a person who has been refused entry into Ireland “is only undertaken as a last resort”, and the State is obliged to return that person “as soon as is practicable”, she said.
Irish prisons
The Government has been repeatedly criticised for housing foreign nationals who are refused entry in Irish prisons. The Irish Penal Reform Trust described the practice as "wholly unacceptable", while the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) reported last year that persons held in Irish prisons for immigration reasons were "subjected to abuse and bullying from prisoners".
“A prison is by definition not a suitable place in which to detain someone who is neither suspected nor convicted of a criminal offence,” said the CPT.
The Irish Refugee Council has expressed concern over the significant increase in the numbers being refused entry during the pandemic, and called for greater transparency and independent oversight at Irish ports of entry.
A total of 2,333 people have been refused leave to land at Dublin airport so far this year, although not all of these will have been detained in prison settings. Some may have claimed asylum and been admitted into the direct provision system.
The Department of Justice said it does not keep statistics on those refused entry who subsequently make asylum applications.
The department did not respond to a request for details of how many people have been detained in prisons or Garda stations so far this year following leave to land refusals.
Refused entry
Some 491 Eritreans have been refused entry into Ireland at Dublin airport so far in 2021, a near three-fold increase on the 180 Eritreans refused entry last year.
The number of Syrians refused entry has also risen significantly, with 345 people from Syria stopped from entering, up from 150 last year.
Some 200 Somalis and 156 Afghans were also refused leave to land.
Another 115 people from Kuwait, 114 Brazilians, 90 Zimbabweans, 74 Albanians, 74 Yemenis and 73 Palestinians have also been refused entry at Dublin airport so far this year.
People from Botswana, Iraq, South Africa, Iran, the US, Sudan, Algeria and Nigeria were also included in the list of nationalities for those refused leave to land.
