Asylum 'shoppers' deported over scam
Thursday November 05 2009
One-in-10 asylum seekers who arrived here this year have been deported to other EU member states because they were 'shopping' for benefits.
The extent of the racket was revealed last night after a week-long operation targeting the asylum 'shoppers' -- so-called because they shop around for better benefit deals between various EU countries.
The recent crackdown by the Garda National Immigration Bureau and the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service resulted in the arrest and deportation of 22 people, mainly Somalians, Albanians and Eritreans.
The majority of them were sent back to Britain, but others were flown to Belgium, France and Germany. All of them were found to have had a "history" in other EU countries where they had either secured a visa, a permit or had lodged a previous asylum application.
Under EU regulations, asylum seekers must be accepted back by the countries where they first landed.
The deportation of the 'shoppers' has become a more regular feature of immigration policy as it is now easier to identify them through the introduction of more sophisticated fingerprinting procedures in the Eurodac system.
In the past, it took up to 10 days to identify a multiple applicant, but a 'shopper' can now be spotted within a few minutes.
All of them were sent back on scheduled flights to minimise the transport costs, but some were accompanied by gardai.
Transferred
The latest arrests mean that a total of 213 people have been transferred under the EU provisions this year -- almost 10pc of applicants.
Although 'shoppers' must be notified in advance that they are to be deported, the authorities have a strike rate of 67pc in locating and transferring the targets. The rest have gone missing.
This compares with a strike rate as low as 40pc in some other EU states.
Immigration authorities expect that the year-end total for asylum shoppers deported from here will at least reach last year's annual toll of 270.
- Tom Brady Security Editor
Irish Independent
