This report examines the Commission's proposals for a Council Directive under Article 100 of the EEC Treaty which requires that Member States approximate their national legislation to establish standards in the treatment by EEC Member States of illegal migrants who have entered illegally or are working illegally within Member States. We are dealing here with people so there is perhaps more interest in the proposals.
The proposed Directive, as summarised in paragraph 2, seeks to oblige Member States to adapt their own national legislation and their own internal administrative practice to ensure that provision is made for the following:
(1) dissemination of information, both in Member States and elsewhere, about working conditions and national regulations on entry, residence and employment;
(2) controls for the prevention and detection of illegal migration and illegal employment, especially of employers and employment agencies;
(3) the imposition of penalties on those, including employers, who organise or participate in illegal immigration and illegal employment;
(4) a requirement that employers and others involved meet the cost of repatriation of illegal migrants where this is required;
(5) a requirement that an illegal immigrant found guilty of working illegally fulfil his employment obligations whether he is subject to deportation or not;
The next one is an important provision for us to consider internally—
(6) an appeal procedure against deportation and access to supporting evidence and to free legal aid where applicable;
(7) a requirement that employers fulfil obligations towards illegal immigrants, particularly in such matters as remuneration, severance payments, social security contributions and taxes;
(8) a requirement that illegal immigrants are treated no less favourably than a Member State's own nationals as regards reimbursement of social security contributions.
At paragraph 3 we summarise very briefly the law and practice in Ireland at the moment with regard to aliens who are non-EEC nationals. We refer to the Aliens Act, 1935, which confers on the Minister for Justice power to make orders to require aliens to comply with particular provisions with regard to registration, change of abode, travel, employment and so forth. We refer to the relevant Aliens Order and we note that an alien may not enter the service of an employer in the state unless he has a permit issued to the employer by the Minister for Labour. These orders provide that an alien may be refused admission if coming for employment which is not covered by the permit and there are penalties for this. We note that in practice the Garda do not prosecute persons found working without a permit but the employer is instructed to regularise the position, or the alien may be required to cease the employment and to produce proof of financial independence if he wishes to remain and reside in the State.
In pargraph 4 we cite the fact that the conditions under which work permits are issued to prospective employers require the Minister for Labour to be satisfied that no Irish or EEC member country national is available to fill the particular position in respect of which the application for a work permit has been received.
We note in paragraph 5 that the existing law permits the Minister for Justice to deport an alien in the public interest. We note that there is no judicial recourse at the moment, although there might be a possibility of applying to the High Court for an order prohibiting his deportation. We note that aliens from Member States of the Council of Europe have certain rights of appeal against expulsion. It is not contained in the report but Members may be aware that we really have three categories of aliens. We have nationals of other Member States, who are a privileged category of national who cannot be discriminated against and who have a much greater right of entry and residence. Secondly, there is the alien from a Council of Europe country which has signed the European Convention on Establishments, 1956. They, too, have considerable protection coming into this country. Then, there are aliens from other countries who do not have this kind of protection and who do not have any specific right to judicial recourse if they are being deported.
At paragraph 6 and the following paragraphs we summarise our views. We say that as there is no extensive employment of immigrant labour in Ireland the matters dealt with in the draft Directive do not pose big problems in this country. They obviously do not pose the same kind of problems as they do for some other Member States of the EEC where they have a fairly large immigrant population coming from outside the EEC countries and where there is the movement towards giving them the kind of rights which are proposed in this Directive. We say that the Joint Committee regard the measures at present in operation here as adequate though we accept that there is a case for making the employer rather than the employee primarily responsible in the case of illegal employment. We doubt if it would be worth setting up an elaborate and costly system of control because of the small number of people involved.
In paragraph 7 we say that we fully accept the proposition that illegal migrant workers should be adequately protected. In particular, we say that the Joint Committee welcome the provision that "an illegal migrant, whether or not subject to deportation, shall be given every opportunity to assert his rights and those of his family before the proper authorities, have access to all possible supporting evidence and, where applicable, free legal aid". We say that, subject to suitable safeguards, where deportation is contemplated on security grounds the Committee would favour some system of appeals similar to that introduced recently for EEC nationals. The position for EEC nationals is that under the original European Communities Regulations, 1973, and the amending regulations of 1977 EEC nationals have recourse to a judicial authority, a judge of the Circuit Court.
If adopted the Directive would impose obligations on Member States to disseminate information both within and outside the Community about working conditions and regulations on entry, residence and employment. We feel that in this area the European Commission itself might be asked to play a part instead of leaving the matter exclusively to the Member States, that one of the roles of the Commission could be to collect and disseminate this kind of information and not just leave it to the Member States. We say that various bodies were consulted—the Federated Union of Employers, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Confederation of Irish Industry—and we are grateful for their assistance.
To summarise in a sentence, we are not a country that has a large problem of illegal migration but this Directive proposes to create certain standards in the treatment of these aliens which do not exist at the moment in our internal law and, specifically, the possibility of recourse to some quasi-judicial process if aliens have either entered illegally or are working illegally within the country and if they are to be deported from the country, that they would have some rights in the matter.
