1,100 deportation orders issued so far this year
Deportations are a “horrible thing” but are necessary for Ireland’s immigration system to remain “credible,” an MEP has insisted. Almost 1,100 asylum seekers have received deportation orders in the first half of 2024, according to figures obtained by The Irish Times – some 16% more than in the whole of 2023. Meanwhile, as of July, 65 people had been forcibly removed from the State this year – 13 more than in all of last year.
The paper reports that plans to charter planes to forcibly remove people handed deportation orders are now at “an advanced stage”. On The Pat Kenny Show, Ireland South MEP Michael McNamara acknowledged the significant increase compared to 2023. “When I asked a parliamentary question as a TD, it was 857 deportation orders issued in 2023, and only 52 of those were effected,” he said. “The [Justice] Minister, partly because of COVID, but also for other reasons best known to herself, stopped enforcing deportation orders—and that became a problem.” Mr McNamara said deportation is a “horrible thing.”
Credit to : The Free Press Journal