PRESS RELEASES

25 July 2008

ECJ ruling on residence for non EU nationals married to EU nationals

We refer to the ruling today by the ECJ which blocks the deportation of those who, though without residency rights, had married an EU national resident in Ireland.

This ruling points up the importance of the article in the new Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill which requires notification by a non EU national of the intention to marry and the permission of the minister. It is vital that this not be watered down as it passes through the Oireachtas. Someone who has no residency right in the state has, by definition, no other rights in the state. He has no right to benefit from any of the institutions of the state, such as marriage.

It also points up the importance of speedy removal of those without residence permission before any complicating liaisons are formed. Our current pathetic levels of deportation lead to such complications.

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25 July 2008

New Arrangements for Common Travel Area

ICP welcomes, in principle, the new Common Travel Area arrangements jointly announced by the Irish and British governments.

It is to be hoped that they will help in the fight against illegal immigration. We particularly point out the importance for us of checks on arrivals to Northern Ireland, as it has been long acknowledged that a very high proportion of illegal entrants to Ireland come across the border from Northern Ireland.

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8 June 2008

Two Gaping Holes in Lisbon Debate

There have been two gaping holes in the Lisbon debate.

1. Not one media person, apparently, has asked why our Government was originally strongly opposed to the Charter of Fundamental Rights being legally binding but now wish it to be so. The Charter is of concern to several groups opposing the treaty and its implications are one of the main concerns for ICP.

2. Immigration has been deliberately sidelined as an issue. Sean Whelan of RTÉ said on the main news recently that asylum and immigration was one of the few areas in the treaty where there was significant change but that “mysteriously” it had not featured in the debate.

It has not been allowed to feature. On the 19th March ICP held a press conference in Buswell’s. RTÉ cameras covered it but the piece has never been used, though even ad hoc groupings such as a women’s press conference on Thursday were shown. This is exactly as was the case in the Nice 2 campaign.

The Irish Times had many pieces pro and con on their Opinion and Analysis pages and we offered to contribute. Nothing was heard from them, though even Freddie Forsyth was considered worthy of a piece. This is in spite of the fact that the National Forum on Europe considered us suitable to make an oral presentation on their submissions day.

Our case may be seen on their website or, in an earlier draft on our own website [here].

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5 April 2008

BERTIE'S LEGACY: MASS IMMIGRATION

Much has been made of Bertie Ahern's Northern Ireland contribution and who would not welcome that.

In this jurisdiction, however, his primary legacy has been malign, and deeply undermining of democracy. We refer to the mass immigration he has presided over for the last 10 years for which he had not a shred of mandate.

The debacle he caused us regarding citizenship in the Belfast Agreement was beyond forgiving and he brazened it out for 6 years before it was amended.

We were one of only 3 countries whose labour market he opened up to unrestricted access from Eastern Europe.

He leaves office with an inexplicable 100,000 Chinese in the country.

Ironically, the very day he announced his resignation The House of Lords in Britain issued a report which found that a similar immigration in Britain had been of no economic value and of course causes all sorts of other problems and strains.

This is the argument we have been making for a few years now and which has been written on by Garret Fitzgerald,David Begg and others.

Let's hope his successor sees the light. We have had enough of having our country treated like a glorified industrial estate and of being treated as if this was a matter which simply did not concern us.

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30 January 2008

'Immigration Control Platform to Oppose Lisbon Treaty'

In the run up to the proposed European Constitution referendum, Immigration Control Platform, at its 2004 AGM, was mandated to oppose that referendum because of our concerns on asylum and immigration. Since there is no substantial change in the Lisbon Treaty we will consequently be opposing it.

Our main concern would be the fact that the Charter of Fundamental Rights is to be legally binding. We draw attention to article 18 of that Charter which refers to “the right to asylum”, wording which was actually rejected by the drafters of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights which replaced it by the less strong wording “the right to seek and enjoy… asylum”.

The Charter will be interpreted by the European Court of Justice and we would have great fears for the judicial activism that could ensue from that Article and others regarding asylum and immigration.

ENDS

Issued by:

Áine Ní Chonaill
PRO

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30 January 2008

Immigration Control Platform generally welcomes the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill 2008.

Our main concern is that there be no watering down of the control elements of the Bill in its passage through the Oireachtas.

We very much hope that the provisions in relation to judicial review, in tandem with the provisions on deportation will be sufficient to address the dreadful levels of abuse of the judicial review process and evasion of deportation which have plagued us for years.

We welcome the fact that the provision of a period of “recovery and reflection” for suspected victims of trafficking is not to be a statutory but a discretionary right.

Such people very frequently have knowingly had themselves smuggled, not realising it would progress to trafficking and the only protection we owe them is to remove them from their enslaver.

Residency should not be a reward or compensation for being trafficked. We expect them to leave or be removed after they have helped the prosecution system.

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11 October 2007

AGM

The AGM of Immigration Control Platform was held in Dublin on October 6th.

The following motions were passed.
Immigration Control Platform proposes that measures be put in place to limit the proportion of foreign-born persons who are not entitled to Irish citizenship to no greater than 5% within the jurisdiction. This represents a sustainable 'organic' level of migration without the attendant costs and difficulties of maintaining social cohesion inevitable in greater inflows.

Immigration Control Platform welcomes the admission of the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, on 23rd April 2007 that we cannot go beyond the current, alleged 10% or 11% at most of immigrants in our population.

The State, where possible, should limit immigration to those who can already communicate in English or Irish

Note: It is not that we expect to receive Irish speaking immigrants from Hy Brazil. This merely acknowledges the constitutional position as it is, for example, acknowledged in the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill 2007, Section 34 (2) (a) (II) which specifies as a standard eligibility requirement for a long-term residence permit that a person "can demonstrate a reasonable competence for communicating in the Irish or English language".

ICP deplores the decision made some time ago that non-nationals on student visas be allowed to remain to seek employment after graduation, considering this an abuse of student visas, conducive to the driving down of salaries and conditions for graduates and a boost to already excessive immigration levels.

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19 July 2007

Roma at the M50 Roundabout

Immigration Control Platform calls for the immediate deportation of the Roma at the M50 Roundabout. These people are only entitled to be here if they can properly maintain themselves and they obviously cannot.

Extract from a NESC report September 2006 "Migration Policy p.97

In-Active Citizens
The right to residence in another Member State of EU citizens not engaged in any economic activity (as salaried or self-employed) has been relatively clear down through the years. They are required to support themselves and their family members without becoming a burden on the social assistance system of the host Member State and to have sickness insurance. The grey area concerns what happens if an individual loses this ability after a period in another Member State and how soon they become entitled to apply for means-tested support on an equal basis to the host country's nationals. Generally, it depends crucially on the duration of stay that has elapsed as to whether and how they are then supported by their host state.

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12 February 2007

DICK SPRING IDENTIFIES THE REAL QUESTION

Well done to Dick Spring, the first to admit that the immigration debate is primarily about numbers. Enda Kenny's call for "a debate" was almost entirely about integration and avoided the crunch question.

Does a politician have to become a former politician before he can speak the truth?

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