As the Deputy will appreciate, the State has a duty to protect its borders and to ensure that all arriving passengers are entitled to enter the State. This is a fundamental exercise of State sovereignty, which is necessary to protect the security of the State and to prevent illegal immigration. The exercise of powers in this area is at all times subject to the law and to respect for individual rights.
The Border Management Unit (BMU) of my Department has responsibility for frontline immigration duties at Dublin Airport only. Other ports of entry are the responsibility of the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB), including the border with Northern Ireland. For security reasons and to protect the integrity of the immigration system, I cannot comment on detailed operational procedures.
I can inform the Deputy that from November 2021 to October of this year, 7,468 people were refused permission to land at Dublin Airport. Of this figure, 4,889 people arrived undocumented. While these passengers should have presented documents at their point of departure, they were no longer in possession of those documents when they disembarked the aircraft or when they reached the immigration desks at Dublin airport.
Under Section 4 of the Immigration Act 2004, an Immigration Officer must determine whether a non-EEA national should be granted leave to land and thus gain entry to the State. In performing their duties, an Immigration Officer is required to consider all of the circumstances of the non-EEA national at the time of entry and may be refused entry if they do not comply with immigration requirements. It should be noted that if a person indicates or is identified as being in need of international protection, they are admitted to the international protection process.
Total Refusal Numbers last 12 months (November 2021 – October 2022)
|
Months
|
|
Nov
|
Dec
|
Jan
|
Feb
|
Mar
|
April
|
May
|
June
|
July
|
Aug
|
Sep
|
Oct
|
Total
|
|
530
|
594
|
399
|
401
|
603
|
653
|
767
|
780
|
801
|
572
|
686
|
682
|
7468
|
