Another aircraft chartered by the Trump administration as part of its mass deportation efforts refuelled in Ireland this week.
The private business jet stopped at Shannon Airport in Co Clare on Wednesday night while travelling to Cairo, Egypt.
US sources confirmed the aircraft was chartered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the controversial agency leading president Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
It is the sixth Ice deportation operation to refuel at Shannon since Trump returned to power a year ago. Last year, three aircraft chartered by Ice stopped at Shannon while bringing deportees to African countries.
READ MORE
In most cases, the deportees had no connections to the countries they were deported to. In one case last May, a group of eight men was deported to Djibouti in violation of a court order.
In January and February, two more Ice deportation flights stopped at Shannon while deporting groups of Palestinians to Tel Aviv in Israel.
The aircraft used in those operations, a Gulfstream IV, is owned by Gil Dezer, a close friend of Trump, and had been hired by Ice from the aircraft rental company Journey.
The use of Shannon as a stopover has been condemned by Opposition politicians. However, Irish authorities say the flights do not need to seek permission as they are technically private aircraft.
The latest flight departed from Mesa Gateway Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, the location of several Ice detention centres, on Wednesday morning. The Gulfstream G550 was also chartered by Ice from Journey.
It landed at Shannon at around 6.30pm on Wednesday before taking off a short time later and flying to Cairo. It remained on the ground there for two hours before returning to Shannon. As of Thursday evening, it remained in Shannon Airport.
It is not known how many people were on board the flight or if Egypt was their final destination.
As it ramps up deportation operations, Ice has increasingly turned to small and medium-sized jets to remove people from the US. These aircraft have limited range meaning they often have to stop to refuel in Europe after crossing the Atlantic.
Irish Opposition politicians have described the use of Shannon for these flights as “reprehensible”, “deeply disturbing” and “outrageous”.
In response to a query on the use of the airport for such flights, a Department of Transport statement noted: “Stops at Irish airports by private aircraft and commercial charters which are technical stops for non-traffic purposes (ie, not picking up or setting down passengers), do not require prior authorisation from the Department of Transport.”
