Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 29 September 2010
950 Deputy Ciarán Lynch asked the Minister for Justice and Law Reform the number of Chinese nationals deported having served a sentence in this country since 2000; if any Chinese nationals have subsequently been re-tried and have any been executed for the same offence in their own country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32462/10]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department's records show that 228 Chinese nationals have been deported from this State since 2000. In relation to the number of those people who have served a prison sentence in this State, such details are not recorded in my Department in a manner as would enable me to readily provide the Deputy with the requested information. The Deputy will appreciate that the extraction and compilation of such information would require my officials in the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service to examine all 228 files and I could not justify the deflection of such officials from their day to day work to assemble this information. The Deputy should note, however, that my Department is in ongoing liaison with the Garda National Immigration Bureau and the Irish Prison Service to ensure that, wherever possible, the cases of non-EEA national persons in detention are processed to completion in advance of their release date so that they are deported at the time of their release rather than being permitted to re-join the general population.
In relation to the treatment of Chinese deportees by the Chinese authorities, this is entirely a matter for the Chinese authorities and clearly neither I nor my Department would have access to such information. However, the Deputy should note that before a decision to deport is made, detailed consideration must be given to the safety of returning that person to their country of origin, a consideration known as the ‘refoulement' consideration which is provided for under Section 5 of the Refugee Act 1996 (as amended). This consideration involves conducting objective, up to date research into the prevailing political and human rights situations in the relevant country of origin and such a consideration would equally be carried out in advance of any deportation decision being made in the context of a Chinese national.
951 Deputy Ciarán Lynch asked the Minister for Justice and Law Reform if he will confirm that a request for leave to remain in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Cork has been received by his Department; when a decision will be made on this matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32463/10]
Amharc ar fhreagraArising from the refusal of his asylum application, and in accordance with the provisions of Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended), the person concerned was notified, by letter dated 26 March 2009, that the Minister proposed to make a Deportation Order in respect of him. He was given the options, to be exercised within 15 working days, of leaving the State voluntarily, of consenting to the making of a Deportation Order or of making representations to the Minister setting out the reasons why a Deportation Order should not be made against him. In addition, he was notified of his entitlement to apply for Subsidiary Protection in accordance with the European Communities (Eligibility for Protection) Regulations 2006. Representations were submitted on behalf of the person concerned at that time. Such representations would sometimes be referred to as a ‘leave to remain application'.
The position in the State of the person concerned now falls to be decided by reference to the provisions of Section 3(6) of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended) and Section 5 of the Refugee Act 1996 (as amended) on the prohibition of refoulement. All representations submitted will be considered before the file is passed to me for decision. Once a decision has been made, this decision and the consequences of the decision will be conveyed in writing to the person concerned. I should remind the Deputy that queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to INIS by Email using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been specifically established for this purpose. The service enables up-to-date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek this information through the more administratively expensive Parliamentary Questions process.
