Back To The Chain Gang

It was another spectacular own goal by Immigration Control. Nineteen Moldovan workers arrived in Dublin Airport last week. They had valid visas and work permits. Despite that fact, however, they were questioned for between two and four hours by immigration officials at the airport - and then refused entry.

The Moldovans had flown into Dublin from Bucharest. It is one of the interesting twists in the tale that the next flight back to that 'place of origin' was four days away. Consequently, the nineteen men were detained, and taken to that excellent facility put in place specially to deal with sensitive cases of this kind by the Department of Justice - Mountjoy Jail.

There is no suggestion that the Moldovans were roughed up or otherwise badly treated. However, they do say that they asked for a solicitor and a translator, and that these were not provided. They also state that they were told that they were being taken to a hotel, to spend their first night in Ireland in what they must have presumed would be comfortable and reasonably hospitable surroundings. Instead, they ended up in the clink.

After their first night in Mountjoy, the men decided to refuse breakfast, in effect threatening to go on hunger strike, if they weren't allowed to see a solicitor, with a translator also in attendance. The authorities acquiesed and the relevant professionals were called in. In consultation with their legal advisors, the Moldovans then set about opposing the decision to detain and to deport them.

They spent three more nights in Mountjoy. Their case was finally heard on the day on which they otherwise would have been slung on a plane back to Bucharest. What happened on the way to court, however, was in its own way just as shameful as what they had already been put through. As they were being taken from Mountjoy for the hearing of their appeal, they were handcuffed, using the long chains that were apparently introduced as a safety measure to protect prison officers a couple of years ago. To say that it was undignified and unnecessary is to put it mildly. Rightly or wrongly, newspapers printed pictures of the men in chains. It was an appalling sight.

In fairness, if you're trained to look at the world that way, there were possible question marks about the men's work situation. The garda on duty in Immigration Control had received information that the jobs for which the Moldovans had received their permits, in a meat processing plant in Kildare, were no longer available. There is conflicting evidence about whether or not the men had been made aware of this in advance of travelling. But even if they were, they almost certainly felt that they had secured visas legitimately, and that these were still valid, and therefore that they were travelling to Ireland in good faith.

Thus, while there may be technical grounds on which their threatened deportation could be justified - a judicial review will decide separately on this issue - on the day, the courts took a different view, deciding that the detention of the men was unlawful, and ordering their immediate release. That decision was undoubtedly facilitated by the fact that other offers of work had been secured during the period of the man's detention, and the Moldovans are now firmly ensconced and gainfully employed here. In that sense, at least, the story has a happy ending.

It is, however, worth thinking about what might have arisen if the men had flown into Dublin from a place of origin which has daily flights to and from the capital - like Paris, for example. In that instance, would the policy not have been to stick the men on the next flight out? And if that had been done would we ever have heard anything about the incident at all?

The Minister for Justice has now committed to new legislation to cover situations of this kind, which will allow for temporary admission to the State of people with valid visas but no work, or work that has fallen through. The Human Rights Bill, which should implement the European Convention on Human Rights in Irish law, has also been promised soon. And finally, there is talk of a new Aliens Act, which would also affect our way of handling situations like that involving the Moldovans. All of which sounds potentially positive - but only if the legislation gets it right, and creates fail-safe mechanisms which guarantee that immigrants cannot and will not be treated in such a dehumanising fashion again.

At the heart of this is the question as to whether it is either appropriate, or indeed fair to the officers who work for Immigration Control, to impose on them the level of responsibility that they now seem to exercise. In terms of its impact on the lives of those affected, the power to refuse people entry to this country is an enormously onerous one, which should not be exercised by an individual garda, and probably not by anyone below the rank of Superintendent.

The pre-emptive and desperately conclusive power to refuse entry, and to put the individuals involved on the next flight out to wherever they have come from, by force if necessary, is also deeply troubling. Enough mistakes have been made in this area to suggest that all immigrants should at least have the opportunity to put their case to an immigration commissioner, or some similar judicial-style office. That, at least, would guarantee against the unseemly haste with which certain deportations have been effected, and which hangs like a pall over the behaviour and the motivation of some of the officers on the ground.

Finally, and most starkly, whatever is happening in relation to interim measures, there must be an alternative to slapping people who are in any kind of immigration limbo in prison. And furthermore, if there are cases that need to go before the courts, for whatever reason, then as a binding stipulation, the individuals involved should not be hand-cuffed or put in chains, unless they have violently resisted going to court, and therefore a legitimate case can be made that whatever officers of the State are accompanying them on that journey might genuinely be in immediate physical danger.

The nineteen Moldovans who were almost flung out of the country despite the fact that they had valid visas were not criminals, and they should not have been treated as if they were. Neither should anyone else who finds themselves in a similar situation in future.