Taxpayers face huge bill to deport 6,000

TAXPAYERS are facing a multi-million euro bill to chase down and deport almost 6,000 illegal immigrants who have gone to ground because they have been served with deportation orders.

Gardaí are trying to trace a total of 5,850 people living here illegally, it emerged yesterday.

It is not known how many of these people are still in the country.

The cost of finding, jailing and deporting them will run into millions of euro, Labour warned yesterday.

Irish taxpayers have already forked out over €1.3 million to deport people on charter flights between 2002 and 2004.

The deportation of just one man to Gambia in February 2004 cost the State €50,000.

In response to a parliamentary question tabled by Labour’s Willie Penrose, Justice Minister Michael McDowell said the total bill for deporting 341 people on 12 charter flights between January 2002 to the end of December 2004 was €1,363,201.

Most were deported to Romania - 250 in 2004.

Nigeria and Moldova were second and third with 77 and 57 deportations respectively.

Of the 341 deported, 20 were children, Mr McDowell confirmed.

“On a handful of occasions, parents who were deported brought their Irish-born children with them,” he said.

Independent TD Finian McGrath said the government was over-reacting. “It is a disgrace, rounding up families like that. There are 6,000 illegal Irish in America. It is an over-reaction.”

But Mr McDowell said the credibility of our immigration system requires deportation.

“If we had a system under which I decided it was not worth a candle to send them home, the result would be catastrophic.

“More and more people would come to Ireland, effectively challenging the Government to send them home,” he said.

The Irish Refugee Council called yesterday for a rethink on the blanket-ban on asylum seekers working in Ireland.

They also called for the establishment of a green-card system of work permits.

Legislation to allow green-card permits to be issued to non-EU citizens is being prepared. However, it is not proposed that the cards will be issued to illegal residents.

A total of 40,321 work permits were issued last year, mainly to people from the Philippines, Ukraine and Romania.