Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 14:

In page 94, line 26, to delete "without" and substitute "upon obtainment of a".

In the next two groups of amendments, we come to some of the most troubling aspects for those concerned with civil rights and our international protection legislation. Amendments Nos. 14, 15 and 16 deal with the issue that members of An Garda Síochána and immigration officers are mandated to behave towards those who were asylum seekers but may have been unsuccessful in their asylum applications in ways that we do not consider it acceptable to treat others. As a country that champions human rights and civil rights, we should seek to have standards for how people are treated in their engagement with the law, even if it is for the purposes of a return or even if that person has not been granted leave to remain or citizenship.

Many hundreds of people have been subject to return orders, on and off, for years. I am thinking, in particular, of the 469 people who have received return orders or deportation orders since the Covid crisis started. Many of them are in huge distress. Many have lived here for ten years, have partners and colleagues in the workplace. Some of them are contributing immensely in the arts. We have heard about those among them who are care workers and health workers. We should bear that in mind. People who have been subject to a return order do not only fear being returned or deported. They are also in fear because the deportation can happen in a frightening and arbitrary way, one that may be very distressing for those around them.

The Bill states that where an immigration officer or a member of the Garda Síochána considers that there is a significant risk of a person who is the subject of a return order absconding, that person may be arrested without a warrant and taken to a place of detention. My amendments provide that this should be done "upon obtainment of a" warrant. That basic standard that a warrant should be obtained for the arrest of a person and his or her detention should stand in this respect.

Amendment No. 15 similarly proposes to delete the words "without warrant". Amendment No. 14 is probably the more useful amendment because it specifies "upon obtainment of a" warrant.

Amendment No. 16 refers to the arresting of a person under subsection (4). This is not a person who has been determined to be a danger to the State.This is not a person who has been determined to be a danger to the State. This is somebody who has been determined as not reaching the standard by which the State will decide to give him or her protection and right of residency. This is not somebody who is a criminal or in imminent danger. Such a person is not even in violation of our public order laws through threats, harassment of others or the endangerment of public health. These people are not endangering others or creating danger in any sense. The section states:

For the purpose of arresting a person under subsection (4), an immigration officer or member of the Garda Síochána may enter (if necessary by use of reasonable force) and search any premises (including a dwelling) [and we have talked at great length when debating legislation on Covid about the sacrosanct nature of the dwelling and how one does not casually invade a dwelling] where the person is or where the immigration officer or member, with reasonable cause, suspects the person to be ...

The immigration officers or gardaí can do this based on reasonable grounds. This would cause immense distress to people who have these orders hanging over them and to those with whom they live, because I know of people who have deportation orders who are living with a partner for six or seven years. It would cause distress to their families, to children, to those who may be resident in a shared house or to those in their workplace. It is a distressing thing to have gardaí or immigration officers entering a premises without warrant and without notice, possibly with the use of force, and it is an inappropriate treatment. All of these amendments seek to address this and introduce, not indefinite permissions for anyone, but the normal processes we would expect in the execution of other aspects of our law and how we would expect people to be treated in terms of basic civil rights and good practice.