Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 1 Mar 2001

Vol. 531 No. 5

Written Answers. - Immigration Policy.

Alan Shatter

Question:

106 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if immigration detainees, whether asylum seekers or others, as defined by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture in its 1996 Annual Report, are always segregated from convicted prisoners or if this is done only in so far as practicable. [6280/01]

Alan Shatter

Question:

107 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if the situation obtaining in regard to the segregation of immigration detainees from convicted prisoners complies fully with the requirements of the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. [6281/01]

Alan Shatter

Question:

108 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if immigration detainees are subject to the same regime and prison rules as convicted and remand prisoners; and if the situation obtaining in this regard complies fully with the standards set out by the European Committee Against Torture in its 1996 Annual Report. [6282/01]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 106 to 108, inclusive, together.

I am satisfied that the accommodation of immigration detainees complies fully with the requirements of the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In addition I am informed that the European Committee Against Torture did not issue an annual report in 1996.

There are currently three separate provisions in Irish immigration law dealing with the detention of non-nationals by the State. They are as follows: section 5 of the Aliens Order, 1946, as amended, provides for the detention of persons who have been refused leave to enter, pending the making of arrangements for their return; section 5 of the Immigration Act, 1999, as amended, provides for power and procedures relating to the detention of persons who are the subject of deportation orders made by the Minister, pending their removal from the State; and section 9 of the Refugee Act, 1996, as amended, which provides for the detention of asylum applicants under certain specified circumstances.

In the case of the first two of the above instruments, there are no specific provisions relating to the conditions-regime which apply to detainees. In the case of the third instrument, the Refugee Act (Places and Conditions of Detention) Regu lations, 2000, it provides that persons detained under the Refugee Act in prisons will be subject to rules 189 to 213 of the Rules for the Government of Prisons, 1947. Rule 189 states that:

Rules 189 to 213 apply to any person in those rules referred to as a prisoner awaiting trial committed to prison for safe custody in any of the following circumstances:–

(a)While awaiting trial for any indictable offence.

(b)Pending the preliminary hearing before a justice of the District Court of a charge against him of an indictable offence, or pending the hearing of an information or complaint against him.

(c)Awaiting sentence.

(d)Aliens not under sentence who are detained under Aliens' Orders.

(e)On commitment to await extradition."

A copy of these rules can be made available to the Deputy if he so wishes.

Immigration detainees are usually detained in either the training unit, Mountjoy Prison, Cork Prison or Limerick Prison. Where immigration detainees are held in Mountjoy Prison, they are normally separated from sentenced prisoners and are not placed in cells with convicted offenders. It is not possible at present to segregate immigration detainees from other prisoners at Cork or Limerick Prisons. In practice the majority of immigration detainees are held in the training unit, which is a drug free place of detention near Mountjoy, which operates a relatively relaxed regime within a secure perimeter. Restrictions there are kept to a minimum, consistent with order and control. Obviously in a setting like this it is impossible to keep immigration detainees separated from other prisoners.