Written answers
Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Department of Justice and Equality
Travel Documents
Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)
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996. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of individuals who have arrived in Ireland at any port of entry, including Dublin Airport, without valid travel documents for each year from 2018 to date in 2025, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1186/25]
Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Border Management Unit (BMU) of my Department is responsible for frontline Immigration at Dublin Airport only. Other airports and other ports of entry are the responsibility of the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB).
The establishment of a person’s identity and nationality is an important feature of our immigration process. Immigration officials conduct passport checks, and run operations as required, to ensure passengers arriving in the State are properly documented in accordance with Section 11 of the Immigration Act 2004.
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 person may be refused.
The table below details the total number of persons who have been refused leave to land at Dublin Airport, and of that total, the numbers refused due to presenting false identity documents or no identity documents. In relation to other ports of entry, I have sought the information requested from the Garda Commissioner and I will write to the Deputy directly should the information be available.
My Department and the GNIB are working closely with airlines on a range of measures to ensure that passengers have such documentation when boarding. This includes delivering in-person training to relevant airline ground-handling staff on immigration requirements and false travel documentation. BMU officials are also available 24/7 to assist airlines with any immigration queries.
BMU and GNIB also have an ongoing intelligence-led programme of operations at airplanes to detect passengers who destroyed documents inflight and to identify the point of embarkation of undocumented passengers. Last year in 2024, the BMU have carried out over 7,300 doorstep operations at Dublin Airport.
I also strengthened visa requirements to travel to Ireland, provided funding for a Garda Airport Liaison Officers network across European transport hubs and assigned additional resources to the BMU to facilitate disembarkment checks.
BMU and GNIB also have an ongoing intelligence-led programme of operations at airplanes to detect passengers who destroyed documents inflight and to identify the point of embarkation of undocumented passengers.
Table 1: Dublin Airport refused leave to land figures between 2018 to 2024
BMU | Total Arriving Passengers | Total Refusals | Without Documentation | False Documents + Imposters |
---|---|---|---|---|
2018 | 15,634,300 | 3,999 | 895 | 891 |
2019 | 16,318,300 | 6,151 | 1,579 | 1,849 |
2020 | 3,636,256 | 2,077 | 712 | 169 |
2021 | 4,118,027 | 3,210 | 2,082 | 279 |
2022 | 13,930,041 | 7,662 | 4,968 | 832 |
2023 | 16,628,545 | 5,826 | 3,287 | 872 |
2024 | 17,310,841 | 5,255 | 2,293 | 1,077 |
* These figures are correct at time of issue; however, statistics may change due to data cleansing.
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