IRELAND: Zimbabweans top list of people using fake travel documents

By Own Correspondent

DUBLIN: ZIMBABWEANS have been named among the top nationalities who tried to enter the Republic of Ireland using  false or forged travel documents.

According to new figures from the country’s Department of Justice some 1,300 people were refused permission to land at Dublin Airport in the first four months of 2023.

Just over a thousand of these presented to immigration officials at the airport with no documents.

Meanwhile, some 280 people presented with false or forged travel documents, the most common nationalities were Zimbabwe, Albania, Iran, Algeria, and China, the department said.

However, refusal to land does not necessarily mean that incoming travellers are refused access to the country.

Previously, secretary general of the Department of Justice Oonagh McPhillips told Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee that people refused permission to land will typically seek asylum under Ireland’s international protection obligations and engage with an immigration officer.

She said that people travelling under false documents “have a tendency” to destroy those papers in order to prevent their being charged with the offence of possessing such false documents.