During the opening days of most new years important stories can pass us by, unnoticed. Hats off to two journalists, Conor Pope and Alexon Lacerda, who spotlighted disturbing incidents at Dublin Airport. These stories come from the Irish Times, January 3 2025. Are they isolated regrettable incidents, or are they typical examples of a “get tough” state anti-immigrant policy?

Brazilian Student Deported from Ireland over Christmas – He claims paperwork error left him “helpless”

A Brazilian student who says he was deported in error over Christmas by Irish immigration authorities has described feeling “helpless” and “abandoned” after a mini-trip away from Dublin turned into a nightmare.

Fernando Moura Fernandes Souza (37) booked a five-day holiday from Dublin to continental Europe during Christmas week – flying from Dublin to Amsterdam on December 23rd before going to Belgium and then Paris, France. When he arrived back at Dublin Airport on the evening of December 27th, he was refused entry to Ireland.

When a border official queried his student visa, Mr Souza said he showed his contract as a part-time waiter in a Dublin hotel, his student card, and a letter from Castleforbes College showing he had registered to study on a full time 15 hours per week English course. The college confirmed to The Irish Times that the letter was official, that he was enrolled, and that his attendance was above an 85 per cent requirement.

Mr Souza said his GNIB (Garda National Immigration Bureau) card, which is mandatory for international students from non-EEA (European Economic Area) countries to stay in Ireland for more than 90 days, expired on November 3rd but he told the immigration officer he had requested a renewal on October 26th.

He had received an email confirming receipt of correspondence at the time, stating processing times were in the region of 10-15 working days. Almost two months later, he was still waiting for approval.

“Immigration hadn’t denied or approved my application. My mistake was not to have questioned why it [the card] didn’t arrive,” Mr Souza said.

He said he tried showing the email to the immigration officer who didn’t believe him. “He said: No, you’re lying. Your letter is fake, your school is fake, and your job is fake. I told him I needed to make a call to prove it and he said that I wouldn’t call anyone.”

Mr Souza said he had believed he would have no problem returning to Ireland because he heard that during the Christmas period students who had experienced delays in the GNIB process could travel.

A statement on the Department of Justice website confirmed special allowances were being made over Christmas as “Immigration Services are currently experiencing a backlog in processing registrations across several locations”.

It said: “Following the completion of a registration, it may take a further two weeks to receive an Irish Residence Permit (IRP) card via post.

“To facilitate Non EEA Nationals legally resident in the State who are required to renew their current permission and who wish to travel internationally during the Christmas period, the Minister is issuing a Travel Confirmation Notice requesting carriers to allow individuals to travel on their recently expired IRP card where an application to renew their permission was submitted in advance of the expiry date of their IRP card.

“Non EEA Nationals in the State who are required to apply for a renewal of their IRP card may use their current recently expired IRP card to enable them to travel in confidence from December 2nd 2024 to January 31st 2025, provided an application to renew their registration permission was submitted in advance of the expiry date of their IRP Card.”

Mr Souza said he tried to convince the immigration officer he was telling the truth and he persuaded the official to ring his employers. “The hotel confirmed that I was working there.” However, Mr Souza said: “I was arrested at 8.30pm. He took me to jail and left me there.”

Jailed, Treated Like a Criminal, Forbidden to Communicate With Friends

He said he spent the night at the detention facility at Dublin Airport Garda station without water or food, and said he was forbidden to communicate with friends, family or a lawyer. “They gave me bread and eggs at 11am the next day, because I asked.”

The next day, December 28th, he was deported from Ireland to Paris. He felt “humiliated and treated like a criminal” and was escorted by two gardaí to the plane.

He was received by armed policemen at Paris-Beauvais airport. “When it was time to disembark, they made me leave through the front door before everyone. I was in the last seat of the plane. I passed by all the passengers, and everyone was looking at me. When I got to the door, the captain gave me my passport, and two heavily armed agents were waiting for me. I felt totally humiliated. I was taken as a detainee, a criminal. And worse than that, I was abandoned.”

He was escorted to a room. “The agents told me I was deported, and I was not charged with any crime. That I was free to do whatever I wanted. I had 90 days to stay legal in France. I thought they were going to deport me”.

He had approximately €200 in notes left over from his previous trip. “I couldn’t go to Brazil because I didn’t have enough money. I’m here with my passport, my Brazilian ID, a bag, three T-shirts and a pair of pants for the tour last week. All my belongings were in my house in Dublin. I was desperate. I didn’t know what to do.”

Feeling increasingly helpless, with no money to stay in France, or to pay for a ticket to Brazil, Mr Souza believed his best option was to attempt to return to Ireland via the UK. He bought a bus ticket from Paris to London that cost around €145, with a plan to travel from England to Northern Ireland and then cross the Border.

“I didn’t have enough money. It was my only option. I didn’t have another resource. I only had money to pay for this bus, for the flight to get back to Dublin.”

No Way back from France to Ireland Via Britain – Deported Again

Before arriving at the strait of Dover to cross to England, he was checked by the UK juxtaposed border control, conducted before people entered the UK, in Coquellles, north France. He explained the situation but was refused permission to travel. “The agent took my fingerprints. He took a picture of me and stamped my passport with an X again”, he said.

Mr Souza was put on a bus and released “in a random place in France. I cried. When I was released in France, the guy said: Man, are you free. Damn, what is this freedom? I didn’t know where I was. It was six o’clock in the morning. It was dark and foggy. I felt totally abandoned”.

Increasingly desperate, he called his manager at the hotel in Dublin and asked for help. She instructed him to do a search online and find the closest airport. She purchased an online ticket for him to fly to São Paulo, Brazil, on December 30th, costing more than €800.

Speaking to The Irish Times before departing, Mr Souza said he was exhausted and distraught after the ordeal.

“I didn’t take a shower, I’m not sleeping. I had to sleep in a bank at the airport,” he said.

“It’s very difficult to pay a lot to do your exchange program, stay up to date, and lose six months of your course, get your passport flagged for refusal, not be able to travel and be expelled from the country. This is heartbreaking. I’m very helpless now. I feel totally frustrated and embarrassed”, he said.

Irish State confirms “significant increase” in Deportation Orders

Questioned about the deportation, the Department of Justice said in a statement it was “unable to comment on individual cases”.

It continued: “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 gain entry to the State. In performing their duties, an Officer is required to consider all of the circumstances of the individual at the time of entry. Section 4(3) of that Act sets out the full range of grounds on which a passenger may be refused. When an individual is refused leave to land, they are issued a notification which details the grounds under which they have been refused.”

There has been a significant increase in deportation orders this year, according to Department figures, with 2,403 orders signed until December 20th, an increase of 180 per cent when compared to the same period in 2023 (857).

Link :
Brazilian Student Deported from Ireland Over Christmas Claims Paperwork Error Left Him Helpless

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The next time a political party comes to your door seeking support, check if it is “opposed to open borders”. Tell that party’s canvasser it is dog-whistling to racists.

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The second story concerns an absurd Irish law banning cannabis.

Medically prescribed cannabis seized and UK-based woman and son ‘interrogated’ at Dublin Airport

Dolores Pickering, an Irish national living in the UK, says Christmas ‘absolutely ruined’ after she and her son – who has been prescribed cannabis for chronic anxiety – are questioned

A woman in her late 70s had her Christmas in Ireland with her son “absolutely ruined” after his medically prescribed cannabis was seized at Dublin Airport and both were “interrogated” for two hours, causing them to miss a connecting flight.

Despite being legal under strict circumstances in the UK, cannabis leaf remains a controlled substance in the Republic and cannot be legally held, a situation that one leading campaigner for change in the law described as “ludicrous”.

Dolores Pickering, an Irish national living mainly in the UK for 60 years, arrived in Dublin Airport with her son Jason (48) on December 23rd with a view to flying on to Kerry to visit the grave of her husband, who died last year.

When they arrived, they presented themselves to Customs officials and explained he was carrying just under 20g of leaf cannabis, legally prescribed by a clinic in London to treat a chronic anxiety condition.

Ms Pickering said they had done this before when travelling through Irish ports and airports, including Rosslare, Cork and Kerry.

“We always declare it and have never had a problem,” she said.

“We’ve been on the ferry to and from Ireland four times and went to Lourdes last year with no problem. We always declare it, because otherwise I wouldn’t do it, you know? I mean, God, I’m nearly 80.”

She was “horrified” when the officials took them to “what I would call an interrogation room and we were held there for about two hours”. They had to wait eight hours for a new connecting flight.

Mr Pickering was diagnosed with severe anxiety several years ago. It was suggested that cannabis could help but not before two courses of alternate medications were tried, both of which proved to be ineffective.

Ms Pickering said that since he started taking the drug regularly he has become “a different person”.

“He can talk. He doesn’t get anxious. He can walk into a hotel. He doesn’t have to worry. He’s got no problem, no problem. He can go anywhere with no problems at all,” she said.

Mr Pickering said his prescription cannabis is in a clearly labelled box and he carries a Sunflower Card to indicate a hidden disability.

He said he had come to Ireland on several occasions without issue, but this time “had been made to feel like a criminal.

“To be interviewed under caution, and my mam as well, and then to have everything taken off me and destroyed – but to be told I’m not in any trouble. So why was it taken off me? Why was I questioned if I am not in any trouble?” he said.

Mr Pickering said spending almost a full day at Dublin Airport did nothing to help with his anxiety, “and I couldn’t sleep for the four days we were in Kerry”.The mother and son returned to their home near Bath in the post-Christmas period, but Ms Pickering remains furious.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been so badly treated in my life? It was horrific. We didn’t know what to do when we got to Killarney. We could probably have bought cannabis on the street; we saw loads of people smoking it, but we wouldn’t get it unless we had a prescription,” she said.

“It ruined our Christmas, absolutely ruined it. We came home and we’ve literally been sitting indoors ever since. It was an interrogation that was so unnecessary when he had everything legal in front of them.”

People Before Profit’s Gino Kenny, who spent years campaigning for the legalisation of medicinal cannabis and who lost his Dáil seat in the general election last November said he was entirely unsurprised by the story.

[ Family had to sell home after HSE fails to reimburse funds for medicinal cannabisOpens in new window ]

“We have a ludicrous situation where people can be criminalised even if they have a medical cannabis licence,” he said.

“If you have the raw form and come into the country, you’re breaking the law because under the Misuse of Drugs act there’s no tolerance for THC whatsoever,” he added, referring to tetrahydrocannabinol, a chemical compound in cannabis.

He noted that 18 grammes of cannabis was “enough to be done for sale and supply – it really is ludicrous, especially if you have a prescription”.

While medical cannabis is legal in some very limited circumstances in Ireland, there “has always been resistance in terms of progressing to the next stage, and it’s extremely frustrating,” he said. “The whole situation is medieval.”

A spokeswoman for Revenue said that while it could not comment on individual cases, “cannabis is a controlled drug and is subject to seizure”.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said there are approved cannabis-based medicines with a marketing authorisation which visitors to the country may bring with them for personal use, “provided they also have the necessary documentary evidence such as original packaging, copies of prescriptions”.

However, cannabis-based products with no authorisation were “still classified as Schedule 1 controlled drugs, and visitors to the country may not bring any Schedule 1 controlled drugs into the country”, he said.

He said neither the UK nor Ireland recognise prescriptions for Schedule 1 controlled drugs from the other jurisdiction, and prescriptions from one jurisdiction will not be dispensed in the other jurisdiction.

Link :

Medically Prescribed Cannabis Seixed, Britain-based woman and son interrogated at Dublin Airport