Twenty-five Indian asylum-seekers who were stopped at Shannon Airport last weekend will be held in Limerick Prison for up to 10 days. The continued detention of the group follows claims by immigration gardaí that they tried to breach airport security last Saturday.
The men were returned to Limerick Prison after gardaí told a special sitting of Limerick District Court late on Monday that they had posed a threat to public order or national security.Under the Refugee Act 1996, they can be held for up to 10 days. The group had travelled from Delhi to Moscow, where they boarded an Aeroflot flight bound for Cuba.
The court heard that the men charged a security post in the transit area and pushed past an immigration officer. Immigration gardaí have said the men claimed there was a bomb on the plane, but this has been denied by the group's spokesman.
Members of a Limerick development organisation for asylum-seekers and refugees have visited the group in prison, where they say they are being treated well.
Mr Ed Horgan, from the Dorus Luimní group, said that one of the men, Mr Samit Ranjan Maitra, had denied that they had tried to leave the airport. He said the men had sat down in the baggage reclaim area after forcing their way past immigration control in an attempt to stop the authorities putting them back on the aircraft. Mr Horgan was critical of their continued detention.
The men have made their initial applications to remain in the State as refugees fleeing persecution. Their applications are likely to be fast-tracked.