Leo: New curbs on illegal immigration
THE Taoiseach has said there is a ‘crackdown’ on illegal immigrants who try to ‘get around the scrum’.
In recent weeks, the Government has noticeably hardened its language and policies on illegal immigration as the issue comes front and centre of politics.
The Government is to start running charter flights to deport people who have failed in their asylum applications and has added two countries – Algeria and Botswana – to its list of ‘safe countries’ in a bid to speed up deportations.
Speaking to reporters in Dublin yesterday, Mr Varadkar said that although conversations about immigration were ‘difficult’, it was necessary to have them.
He said: ‘There’s no clampdown on immigration… there is a crackdown on illegal immigration, and these are totally different things.
‘And I know it’s a difficult thing to talk about, but we all need to be better at learning the language and speaking about migration properly and competently.
‘There are lots of different types of migrants. You know, people who come here from the EU and the UK every year. They come here just like we can go there. That’s the right we have.
‘We issue 20,000 to 40,000 work permits here, asking people to come to our country to work on construction sites, to work in hospitals, to work in our schools. We have students coming here on student visas. We have Ukrainians who are coming here as refugees from a country that is war-torn.’
He said: ‘The area that’s become controversial is a small part of immigration, and that’s international protection.
‘And when it comes to people seeking international protection, we want to grant protection to those who are entitled to it as quickly as possible and integrate them into our society,’ he said.
‘For those who try to get around the scrum and use the international protection system incorrectly, when they should be applying for a work permit or work visa, yes, there’s a crackdown on that and I stand over that.’
However, he added: ‘There is no clampdown on immigration. We have an immigration policy which is fair and welcoming to those who come here legally, but is firm with those who come here illegally.
‘We’re welcoming more people to Ireland all the time. If you look at this construction site, there’s no way we’d be able to build these houses were it not for construction workers who come here from overseas, no way we could run our health service – Blanchardstown Hospital down the road – without all the people that come from overseas.
‘So, far from clamping down on immigration, we are welcoming immigration. But we are cracking down on people who come to the country illegally and try and abuse the generosity of our system.
‘A lot of the things that are being done aren’t particularly new. It’s just the context has changed. So we would have had maybe only 2,000 to 3,000 people coming here seeking international protection every year. That’s increased pretty much tenfold and that requires a response from Government.’
He said this meant making decisions more quickly and giving those who are entitled to protection ‘the protection they need and deserve’.
He added: ‘Over a million people entered Europe regularly last year. It’s not a surprise that 1% or 2% of them are going to make the road to Ireland. These aren’t things that we can control.’
‘There is no clampdown’