Father-of-four convicted of trafficking immigrants

A Nigerian father of four has been convicted by a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury of trafficking 12 illegal immigrants into Ireland over two years ago.

Mr Olaitan Ilori of Oak Drive, Blessington, Co Wicklow, had pleaded not guilty that between March 1 and October 27, 2004, he organised for 14 Mauritian nationals, whom he reasonable cause to believe were illegal immigrants, to enter the country.

Earlier, Judge Martin Nolan told the jury to return a verdict of not guilty by direction of the trial judge in relation to two charges faced by Mr Ilori. The offences related to two Mauritian children who travelled with the 12 adults to Dublin Airport.

The jury returned a unanimous verdict on seven charges and a majority on five after deliberating for almost seven hours and staying overnight in a hotel. It was day 12 of a trial that was the first case of trafficking of illegal immigrants to come before the Circuit court.

Ms Aileen Donnelly SC (with Mr Kerida Naidoo BL), defending, applied to have her client remanded on bail because she said he was a married man with four very young children who has attended on every court date.

Mr Alex Owens SC, prosecuting, said that it was the State’s attitude that Ilori should be remanded in custody as he had just been convicted of a serious crime.

Judge Nolan remanded Ilori on continuing bail but ordered that he should sign on twice daily at Naas Garda Station and surrender both his Irish and Nigerian passport. He adjourned sentencing to later this month.

During the trial Mr Veeraj Sunyasi, a Mauritian national, told the 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?".

He 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 told Mr Patrick McGrath BL (with Mr Owens), prosecuting, that he later went to a meeting in MDI where he and 20 other Mauritian nationals met with Olaitan Ilori, an immigration consultant from Ireland, who told them that he didn’t have the work permits arranged and that they would have to come to Ireland first where it would be approved in a week.

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

This meeting took place a couple of days before he travelled to Ireland with 11 other fellow nationals and two children and 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 Ilori who told him not to worry because he would help them out.

He said that when some of the group were trying to fill out the landing card on the plane they asked 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 weren’t allowed into Ireland and the group flew back to Paris the next day before going home to Mauritius.

Mr Sunyasi didn’t accept a suggestion from Ms Donnelly that 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 (Ilori) said because he was a professional and we trusted him."

Detective Garda John McCormack from the Garda National Immigration Bureau said that he arrested Ilori after telling him he suspected he was involved in organising the arrival of 14 Mauritian nationals into Dublin Airport.

He met with him in the customs office of Dublin Airport after he had been stopped during a routine examination by custom and excise officers.

Ilori had a number of documents on him including 9 receipts that had been issued by Micro Data Information academy for excellence in Mauritius, for what was described as "down payments for work visa application in Ireland".

The receipts were in the name of four of the Mauritian Nationals who had been stopped by custom officers after getting off a flight from Paris and was for a total sum of 448,400 rubies.

Det Gda McCormack told Mr Owens that Ilori told gardai he was not involved in illegally trafficking anyone and he simply gave the group advice on how to come into the country legally and the "law of the land" associated with it.

Ilori denied ever receiving any money from the Mauritian nationals but said that he was to be paid a commission of €2,000 once they all secured jobs in Ireland. He said if they all didn’t find employment he would receive a percentage of the €2,000.

Detective Garda Michelle O’Connor from the National Immigration Bureau told the jury that she refused 14 Mauritian, including a six-year-old and a nine-year-old child entry into the State because she didn’t believe they were coming to Ireland for a holiday as they claimed.

She told Mr Owens she asked each of the group of Mauritian nationals to present their passport, landing card and return tickets to Mauritius. All 14 landing cards indicated that the duration of the person’s stay was four weeks and the purpose of their visit was tourism.

They all also had open return tickets to Maritus that were valid up to the end of February 2005.

She was also handed a document from an organisation called Micro Data Information Academy for Excellence, based in Mauritius. It stated that it was a letter of recommendation for a named 12 candidates who were on a "fact finding mission to Ireland in relation to commerce, information technology and hospitality.

It said that provision had been made for their accommodation and "any incidental costs" for their stay in Ireland.

The letter also stated that the signiture had no hesitation in recommending the candidates for work permits. None of the Mauritian Nationals had a work permit.

Det Gda O’Connor said that she refused the 14 people entry into Ireland because she believed they were coming to the country for reasons other than that which they claimed. "I basically thought they were telling lies", she said.