Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 14 October 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration
General Scheme of the International Protection Bill 2025: Discussion
2:00 am
Lynn Ruane (Independent)
Great. I wonder then about the whole legal fiction around non-entry. The witnesses from IHREC, or others, may have a comment to make on that. We are creating the potential for a no-man's land in which obligations do not have to be fulfilled. We are potentially creating a scenario where people are left temporarily stateless. What concerns do the witnesses have in relation to that?
The next question is for the Department to think about as well. Under the asylum border procedures, the inspection applies only to screening centres, border procedure centres and return borders and we are not applying them, under what would be OPCAT, to places of detention. That is really scary considering it is accepted that in some cases children could be detained with their families. What does that even look like? Are we saying there will be a family detention centre created for those scenarios and that there will be no role then for inspection of such a facility? It is extremely alarming and concerning that it would be proposed that any family unit would be in a detention facility. If anyone wants to pick up on any of those points, it would be great.
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