So Joe Soapsky arrives to Dublin with his valid Irish visa. The immigration official, asks "So, are you thinking of going to Derry". Joe Soapsky, who has no clear idea of where Derry is says "Why not?"... and gets deported.(10) There are included in the reasons why the Minister may consider
a refusal [of entry] justified the following: that in his or her opinion—
the applicant—
(i) intends to travel (whether immediately or not) to
Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands
or the Isle of Man, and
(ii) would not qualify for admission to that place if he or
she arrived there from a place other than the State;
If the Garda suspects a tourist intends to visit the north, they can be deported. This actually happens all the time, and not just here. Tourists arriving to Belfast who are suspected of intending of traveling south are regularly deported from the UK under a joint PSNI-Garda operation reported in the Irish Times.(Article)
And intention to do something is a thought crime. A suspicion that someone intends to do something may be a misunderstanding.FRANK Kakopa was given compensation and an unreserved apology from the BIA. The structural engineer from Warrington had what he describes as "the worst experience of my life" when he brought his wife, 15-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter for a weekend break to see the Giants Causeway in 2005. The family had booked a B & B on the Antrim coast and a hire car to be picked up at Belfast City Airport. Instead, Kakopa, who is originally from Zimbabwe, was arrested and thrown in jail.
"We'd planned this trip for some time and everyone was quite excited," he says. "When we arrived, officials asked to see my ID. I'd phoned immigration the night before to check what documents I needed, and I'd also been in touch with the car hire firm. So I had our drivers' licenses, the children's passports, a pay slip with my national insurance number and a bank statement. They asked me if we were asylum seekers. I said, 'You have our papers, why do you ask that?' I was smiling, but I didn't feel very welcome. Then they took us aside and started interrogating me in front of the other passengers. They kept saying, 'Prove who you are.'"
Kakopa was brought to see Irish officials at the airport. He had worked in Dublin before he got his current job in England. They also questioned him. He complained to the BIA about the way he was being treated but this was not recorded. By this stage he had been separated from his wife and children.
Several hours of questioning later, a BIA official told him he was an illegal immigrant, took mugshots and called the security guards. "It was so humiliating. They were chaining people up like animals. I refused to be handcuffed. I said I was not going to walk past my children in chains," says Kakopa. "My daughter was screaming. I couldn't look at her . . . I was struggling to control myself."
Another interesting part of the bill is that a visa application may be refused if:
Sweeping ministerial powers, or what.(9) The Minister shall refuse to grant a visa application if he or
she considers its refusal to be justified.