Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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683. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons who have been refused leave to land at all ports of entry to the State since March 2020, by month in tabular form. [44828/20]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Border Management Unit (BMU) of the Immigration Service of my Department has responsibility for frontline immigration services at Dublin Airport only. Other ports of entry are the responsibility of the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB).

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. Over 99% of travellers are permitted leave to land under various legal mechanisms including the EU Free Movement Directive, their relationships to Irish citizens, work permit schemes, study visas, or a lawful permission to be in the State already. In a small minority of cases, a person may be refused leave to land for lawful reasons. In most of these cases the person is placed on a flight and returned to the location from which they departed on the same day.  

The number of persons refused leave to land by the BMU and GNIB between March 2020 and December 2020 were as follows:

Table: Number of non-nationals refused leave to land  

">Leave to Land