Irish company accused of charging for work permits

A Mauritian national has told a jury he applied to a company in Mauritius for a work permit for Ireland after reading an advertisement which said: "Would you like to work in Ireland and earn euro?"

Mr Veeraj Sunyasi, who has been attending college in Ireland since January 2005, said he paid a total of 105,000 Mauritian rupee, approximately €3,500, to Micro Data Info (MDI) after meeting with the company's managing director, Kevin Chuttur, in April 2004.

He later went to a meeting in MDI where he and 20 other Mauritian nationals met with Mr Olaitan Ilori, who was described as an immigration consultant from Ireland, and he told them he didn't have the work permits arranged and that they would have to come to Ireland first where they would be approved in a week.

Mr Sunyasi said that Mr Ilori told the group he had already found jobs for them but they would have to do a trial in their new position before a work permit was issued.

He said the group had been told that Mr Ilori would have the documents at the meeting ready for them to work legally in Ireland.

Mr Ilori of Oak Drive, Blessington, Co Wicklow, has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that between March 1 and October 27, 2004, he organised or knowingly facilitated the entry into the State on October 27, 2004, of 14 Mauritian nationals, whom he knew or had reasonable cause to believe were illegal immigrants. It was day-seven of the trial.

Mr Sunyasi told Mr Patrick McGrath BL (with Mr Alex Owens SC), prosecuting, that this meeting took place a couple of days before he travelled to Ireland with 11 other fellow nationals and two children and Mr Ilori.

When the group arrived in Paris on their way to Dublin Airport, he got worried that they had no documentation to show immigration.

He voiced this concern to Mr Ilori who told him not to worry because he would help them out. "We felt trapped because we were in Paris at this time," Mr Sunyasi said.

He said that when some of the group were trying to fill out the landing card on the plane they asked Mr Ilori what they should say was the purpose of their visit to Ireland and he told them to tick the box for tourism.

He agreed with Mr McGrath that they were not allowed into Ireland and the group flew back to Paris the next day before going home to Mauritius.

Mr Sunyasi told Ms Aileen Donnelly SC (with Mr Kerida Naidoo BL), defending, that before he arrived in Ireland in January 2006, he phoned his college and told them he previously had been refused entry to the State.

He was told that he would have no difficulties at the Airport once he had paid his college fees and he subsequently didn't have any problems being allowed stay in Ireland.

Mr Sunyasi didn't accept a suggestion from Ms Donnelly that Mr Ilori told the group that once they came to Ireland they would have to find a suitable employer who would then apply for a work authorisation.

He also did not accept that Mr Ilori never suggested that a work permit would be available within a week of their arrival in Dublin and that he never mentioned anything about doing a trial in the new position.

"I was not coming to Ireland looking for a job. We were coming here to do a trial and then get a work permit and start work," he told the jury. "We did what he said because he was a professional and we trusted him."

Ms Sadna Narayanan, who is now living in Ireland with her husband and two children, said she and her husband made a down payment of 172,000 Mauritian rupee, (€8,000 each) with MDI for an application for an Irish work permit.

She said they told the company that they would be bringing their children with them but they weren't charged any extra for them.

She was also told when she arrived in Ireland they would have to pay €2,000 each, which would be broken down into instalments of €400 per month over five months.

She also attended the meeting with Mr Ilori where she was told that he would organise everything.

They were told they would have no problems in Ireland. They would first meet with their employers and do a trial with them after which Mr Ilori would organise everything for their work permit.

Ms Narayanan told the jury that Mr Ilori told them at the meeting in MDI to tell immigration in Dublin Airport that they were tourists on a fact finding mission.

He told her if she was asked about her children to say that there was nobody in Mauritius that could look after them and he also said if they were deported he would intervene.

She paid a further 18,000 Mauritian rupee but only for her husband because she just wanted to study in English and didn't want to work.

Ms Narayanan told the jury that she was handed a MDI certificate in the Airport before she flew out to Ireland for a computer course that she never completed and knew nothing about.

She agreed with Ms Donnelly that her children were not coming to Ireland to work and she hadn't paid for them to work in Ireland.

She said when she travelled to Ireland last year her husband had already been studying here. She rang Detective Garda Derek Smith before she flew to Dublin to ask if it would be alright for her children to come with her.

Ms Narayanan agreed that she knew at this time that she had to come to Ireland for the trial to give evidence but denied discussing this with Det Gda Smith. She further agreed that in October 2004 it was her intention to come to Ireland to work lawfully.

She didn't accept a suggestion from Ms Donnelly that Mr Ilori told her if they had trouble with immigration that they could appeal and that he never said he would interfere if they were deported.

"No, he never said that," Ms Narayanan replied.

Mrs Parbutte Kookor told Mr McGrath that she also travelled with the group and although Mr Ilori told them to tick the box for tourism on the landing card, she was not going to Dublin as a tourist but to work.

She agreed with Ms Donnelly that it was her intention to come to come to work legally in Ireland but accepted that there was no option to chose "work" on the landing card as the purpose of her visit to Ireland.

Ms Kookoor said she also saw the advertisements by MDI in Mauritius, saying: "Work and study in Ireland."

The hearing continues before Judge Martin Nolan and a jury of seven men and five women.