Restrictions on the rights of asylum-seekers in a proposed law would breach international standards, the United Nation's refugee agency in Ireland warns in a document being sent to all politicians today.
The humanitarian organisation says plans to fine airlines and ferry companies who transport undocumented migrants to the State will drive refugees into the hands of smugglers.
The UNHCR wants to see changes to the Immigration Bill 2002, which is currently going through the Oireachtas, to ensure it meets international refugee protection principles.
It says carriers such as airlines and ferry companies should be exempt from the Bill's proposed fines of up to €3,000 per immigrant if the person they transport to the State is an asylum-seeker or refugee.
"Carriers' legislation without this exemption will only drive asylum-seekers/refugees into the hands of smugglers and traffickers as has happened in other States," the UNHCR's Dublin branch office warns.
The Immigration Bill makes it an offence for carriers to bring to the State migrants without the necessary paperwork, regardless of their asylum status. This provision has been widely criticised by refugee lobby groups who argue that people fleeing persecution are often not able to secure travel documents. Attempts by Labour Party senators to amend this section of the Bill when it was before the Seanad last December were unsuccessful. However, the carrier sanctions section of the Bill was amended in the Seanad to acknowledge the right of asylum-seekers to enter the State to claim refugee status and the discretion of Minister for Justice to admit someone in need of protection.
The UNHCR also disapproves of the Bill's intention to reject applications for refugee status from applicants who do not comply with procedures. It says a person can be found to be or not to be a refugee only after a substantive interview.
Rejecting someone who has not been interviewed "is not in keeping with the object and purpose" of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, the key legal document defining the rights and the legal obligations of states. The UNHCR recommends that such applications should instead be considered abandoned and closed, with the possibility of people applying to re-enter the asylum procedure at a future date.
A proposal in the Bill for Ireland to receive refugees under a United Nations-sponsored programme is welcomed in the document, as resettlement is a "key durable solution for refugees".
The UNHCR concludes: "There are some aspects of the Bill which need to be revised in order to ensure the desired full conformity with international protection principles." It says it has offered its suggestions "in the spirit of its ongoing, close co-operation" with the Government, and hopes they will be taken into consideration and "appropriately reflected" in the final text of the Bill.