Gangs are acting as criminal ‘travel agents’ by selling ‘packages’ of fake documents to allow illegal migration in to Ireland.
Criminals have been targeting Georgian nationals who wish to claim asylum in Ireland by producing fake driving licences and identification cards from EU countries. These are then posted to asylum seekers to allow them to travel to Ireland.
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The Irish Dail Mail understands that such packages can sell for anywhere between €8,000 and €12,000 on the black market. Internal Government documents, obtained by the Irish Daily Mail, raised concerns over an ‘increasing number of asylum claims made by Georgian citizens in Ireland in recent years’.
Sources told the Mail: ‘Many of these people are arriving here with fake work permits or visas, some of which could be EU documents or fake Irish work permits.
‘However, often people when they arrive into the country will throw them away or discard them as they fear they will be found out by the authorities, and it’s easier to stay in Ireland and try to claim asylum for longer if your country of origin can’t be detected if you have no travel documents.’
Georgia has been deemed a ‘safe country’ by Ireland since 2018, meaning while its citizens can apply for asylum, they are less likely to be granted it.
Despite this, there were 2,710 claims from the country in 2022, the ‘highest number of applications by nationality’ that year.
Since then, Justice Minister Helen McEntee has closed the net even further, and applicants from safe countries who arrive here now typically receive a first-instance decision in less than three months.
Now, criminal gangs are exploiting this clampdown by the Irish Government, which has seen real applications from Georgia fall dramatically this year, to get them into the country through fake documents.
Documents obtained by the Mail show that the Department of Justice is now working Georgian Embassy on the issue and a number of arrests have been made in relation to selling packages to Georgians.
The documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, state: ‘This has included the appointment of a Police Attaché at the Georgian Embassy in Dublin, and the arrest of a number of socalled “travel agents” selling packages for Georgians wishing to travel to Ireland to claim asylum.’
The Georgian Embassy has been engaging with the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment on expanding possibilities for Georgians to work here.
Governments across Europe are able to determine that certain countries are ‘safe’, meaning they do not believe that citizens there are generally subject to persecution.
Gardaí and their counterparts across several EU countries have been mounting an ongoing battle against these so-called travel agents.
A Europol crackdown, in 2021 under what was known as Operation Mombasa, led to the convictions of three Georgians here under human trafficking laws that year.
In one case in June 2021, Judge Martin Nolan said people availing of the service were not ‘downtrodden or vulnerable’ but were people from Georgia who wanted to ‘improve their financial lots’ and ‘escape’ a country they did ‘not want to live in’.
As a result of intelligence gathered by Operation Mombasa and other trafficking probes, officers here are aware of the fraudulent behaviour being employed to smuggle people into Ireland.
Operation Mombasa was established as a result of the Icelandic and Spanish authorities intercepting Georgian nationals within their jurisdiction committing criminal offences.
The investigations found some of these had sourced false documents here.
Sources described how Ireland is a destination for people being smuggled as well as the source of fake documents being sent to others to enable them to work in other countries.
‘With regards to Georgia, we have a growing number of people from that country coming here for asylum. We also have a lot of people here using these false instruments,’ the source said.
‘Ireland is also acting as a hub for the delivery of fake documents to countries in Europe. It is usually being carried out by the same gangs or organised crime groups who are associates of theirs.’
Last November Justice Minister Helen McEntee added Algeria and Botswana to the safe list. She is reviewing the list, with a view to adding more countries.
On Tuesday, she said: ‘That review is under way and I hope to bring it forward soon. Where I can expand it I certainly will, but I don’t have a definitive timeline.’
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said applicants from safe countries now receive a first instance decision in less than three months, a significant reduction from a norm of 22 to 26 months in recent years.
He said, for the year up to January 31, applications from safe countries has reduced by over 50%.
The Georgian Embassy was contacted for comment.
