If a person does not produce a valid passport, or other equivalent document, an Immigration Officer may refuse the person leave to land in accordance with Section 4 of the Immigration Act 2004.
When a person is refused leave to land at an airport, the priority is to return them on the next available return flight to the last point of embarkation. If a person indicates or is identified as being in need of international protection they are admitted to the international protection process.
I will forward to the Deputy a Table setting out the statistics sought by him. In general terms he may wish to note that the number of passengers who arrived without valid documentation and were subsequently refused leave to land in 2022 was 4,968. These figures are available in relation to Dublin Airport only.
Insofar as the Dublin Regulation is concerned, this Regulation provides a mechanism intended to determine which EU Member State is responsible for examining an international protection application. It does not determine whether a person should be refused leave to land at the border of the State, nor does it empower a Member State to return a person who has sought asylum to their airport of embarkation for the purposes of having their protection application considered by the authorities of that jurisdiction.
Consideration as to the the application of the Dublin Regulation is instead carried out within the International Protection Office once a person has sought protection and persons whose case has been determined under the Regulation are entitled to a full appeal of that determination to the International Protection Appeals Tribunal. In practice, and in keeping with the experience of all Member States, effecting transfers under the Regulation is challenging, and reforming these arrangements therefore forms a key part of the ongoing discussions at EU level with respect to agreeing a new Migration and Asylum Pact.
