'I left to survive': asylum seekers locked up with criminals ahead of deportation

Ottoline Spearman

Mass arrests and detention of foreign nationals are placing more pressure on a prison system which is overcrowded and nearly at breaking point.

Prison sources told BreakingNews.ie that it was becoming more common for people in the asylum system who are awaiting deportation to be sent to prison, placing further burden on prisons which are already operating well beyond maximum capacity.

The practice has reared its head again after 14 South African women and over 30 men were sent to Dóchas women's prison and Cloverhill prison after their routine check-in at the Garda National Immigration Bureau on Thursday. This happened ahead of their deportation flight, which is scheduled in the coming days.

Leanke, one of the South African women who has been detained, told BreakingNews.ie her story.

She said that her husband and brother were murdered in South Africa in a "short space of time", in "acts of violence that destroyed everything [she] knew".

"Home no longer meant safety. Grief became something I carry every single day," she said.

"I did not leave to seek opportunity. I left to survive.

"I came here with the... belief that Ireland could offer safety, dignity, and a chance to rebuild a life that was violently torn apart."

We are terrified. Not because we have done anything wrong, but because our lives feel once again out of control - Leanke, 36-year-old South African woman

Leanke, 36, has been detained in Dóchas prison with her 69-year-old mother since Thursday.

"Sitting beside my mother, watching her fear, feeling my own terror, is something I never imagined after already surviving so muchloss.

"We are terrified. Not because we have done anything wrong, but because our lives feel once again out of control."

Those in the prison have not been told why they have been detained, when they will be leaving or what is going to happen.

And in prison, they are put in with already-sentenced criminals.

Angelia Russell, a South African activist, told BreakingNews.ie that she has been in touch with those who have been detained. She said that they are "terrified" at being in the same place as "criminals who have committed serious crimes".

"One of the men detained has longer hair and the prisoner keeps stroking his hair and it's making him feel extremely uncomfortable," she said.

Immigration detention is not a criminal sanction. Holding people in penal institutions risks conflating administrative processes with criminal punishment - Human Rights and Equality Commission

She also said that many of her friends had to sleep on the floor for the first two nights in prison due to the lack of beds.

The Human Rights and Equality Commission said that the practice of "administrative detention" of people for immigration purposes is "problematic".

"Immigration detention is not a criminal sanction. Holding people in penal institutions risks conflating administrative processes with criminal punishment and raises concerns regarding proportionality, conditions, and safeguards," a spokesperson said.

"This is particularly in the current context where prison capacity and overcrowding have been highlighted.”

Recently, the head of the Irish Prison Service said in a letter to the Department of Justice that Cloverhill, the country's main remand prison was operating at 125 per cent capacity and only had room for three more prisoners.

According to the Irish Times, on Friday, the Dóchas Centre was at 162 per cent capacity.

"These people are not criminals," Russell said. "They came with their original documents, clean criminal records and have only ever complied with the state.

"They came for safety, not to be persecuted."

The Department of Justice said that "the Irish Prison Service has no control over the numbers committed to custody at any given time".

The spokesperson said that while the Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan was "acutely aware" of the overcrowding in prisons, prison numbers had continued to grow to due an increased number of court sittings and detections by the gardaí.

Specifically in relation to the detention of asylum seekers prior to deportation, the department said that this was an "operational" matter for An Garda Síochána.