THE GOVERNMENT plans to establish a separate detention centre in the new Thornton Hall prison complex for foreign nationals such as asylum seekers or illegal immigrants. CARL O'BRIENand RUADHÁN MacCORMAICreport
The move to establish the unit comes at a time when human rights groups are expressing concern that new immigration laws will give authorities greater power to detain asylum seekers once they enter the State.
The Irish Times understands the new facility in the 1,400-bed prison complex at Thornton Hall - which will replace Mountjoy Prison - will be used to detain foreign nationals separately from other prisoners.
While the capacity of the unit has not been decided, the average number of immigration-related detentions in recent years has been in the region 1,200 a year, or some 45 people on a daily basis.
However, the move is certain to anger a range of interest groups which have been campaigning against the detention of asylum seekers who have not committed any criminal offence.
Under the Government's Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill, an asylum seeker can be arrested and detained at the frontier of the State where it is "not practicable" to issue an entry permit. Such people can be held in "a prison or other place of lawful detention".
The State's human rights watchdog, the Human Rights Commission, says the detention of asylum seekers should be avoided and recommended an amendment specifying that this would be a measure of last resort.
It also advised that prisons are not suitable places for the detention of asylum seekers who have not been convicted of a criminal offence.
These concerns are shared by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
In its own commentary on the immigration Bill, the UN refugee agency said detention should only occur in line with international human rights law, meaning it should be seen as exceptional.
Eugene Quinn, of the Jesuit Refugee Service Ireland, said vulnerable categories of detainees such as pregnant women, older people and traumatised persons should be excluded from the prison system.
He said non-custodial alternatives to detention would provide significant savings in terms of both human and financial costs.
A Department of Justice spokeswoman confirmed yesterday that a section of the complex will be available for detaining foreign nationals who are unlawfully in the State for a limited period before deportation.
However, she said the new complex would merely facilitate the existing practice where foreign nationals unlawfully in the State were detained prior to their deportation.
She said the centre would meet a long-standing demand by non-governmental organisations working in the area which objected to deportees being held with convicted offenders or persons accused of criminal acts.
The Department of Justice insists that detention provisions contained in the Bill are intended only as a short-term measure for asylum seekers who, for practical reasons, cannot be granted an entry permit on arrival in Ireland.