Nearly 1,400 people have been refused entry to Ireland at Dublin Airport so far this year, Justice Minister Simon Harris has confirmed.
In response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin’s Darren O’Rourke, the Fine Gael TD confirmed the number of people who were not granted “leave to land” between January and March.
Mr Harris said that the “State has a duty to protect its borders and, following examination, ensure that all arriving passengers are entitled to enter the State".
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In the first quarter of 2023, 1,373 people were refused leave to land. Mr Harris confirmed that these people had 25 different nationalities. Another 79 people were from “other States” that could not be identified as fewer than 10 people with this nationality were turned away.
Some 152 of the people who were refused were Georgian, 119 were Somali and 108 were Zimbabwean.
Another 93 Iranian people were refused leave to land, as were 79 Albanian people, 77 Bolivian people, 77 Chinese nationals and 65 Eritreans.
Minister Harris said that protecting borders is a “fundamental exercise of State sovereignty, which is necessary to protect the security of the State and to prevent illegal immigration”.
Under Section Four of the Immigration Act, an immigration officer must determine whether a person from outside the European Economic Area should be granted leave to land, or permission to enter the State.
A person can be turned away for a number of reasons, including if they are not in a position to support themselves, if they intend to take up employment but do not have a valid employment permit, if they pose a threat to national security or if they have spent a certain length of time in prison.
A refusal stamp is placed in the person’s passport and a record is kept of why the person was not allowed to enter the State.
The person is typically returned to the airport they departed from.
Leave to land is different to a deportation or removal order as the person can try to reenter the State in future if they later meet the entry conditions.
Minister Harris confirmed that in 2022, 99.94% of travellers into the State were given permission to land.
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