Man who used diplomatic passports to help women enter State is jailed
Eimear Dodd
A man who used diplomatic passports to assist several women in entering the State has been jailed for four and a half years.
Abdallatif Mohamed (40), aka Hussein, used Somali diplomatic passports to help several women enter the State at Dublin Airport during a three-month period in 2024.
He pleaded guilty to four counts of assisting in the unlawful entry into the State of persons, contrary to Section 6 of the Criminal Justice Act 2021. He has no previous convictions.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told that Mohamed was working in the diplomatic services at the time of his offending.
The court heard that a flight arrived from Abu Dhabi on November 26th, 2024. He was travelling with two women, who purported to be his wife and daughter.
They were all travelling on Somali diplomatic passports. These were genuine travel documents, but were not issued to the two women.
They were met at the door of the airplane, and gardaí noted that the women were not the same as in their photos in the passports.
Mohamed was later seen at the offices of Garda National Immigration Bureau attempting to conceal the women's genuine passports in his clothing.
He was also found with two phones, $13,910 and small amounts of other denominations.
The women confirmed the passports found on Mohamed were their genuine passports. They both said they had paid him to bring them here.
One woman said she paid $14,000, while the other woman said she paid $15,000.
When interviewed by gardaí, he outlined that he would explain that he had come into the State for a week's holiday and would present evidence at immigration of their intended departure.
Mohamed said he had a separate booking for him to leave the next day, while the women were intending to remain behind.
Mohamed's full admissions extended to include two further incidents of similar offending on September 30th and November 6th, 2024.
CCTV
Gardaí used CCTV footage to confirm these incidents. The court was told Mohamed would arrive on a flight from Abu Dhabi with a woman, but would leave the plane alone and make his way through immigration, present the Somali diplomatic passport, and say he was here for a week's holiday.
The women would then present without travel documents and request international protection. Mohamed was carrying their travel documents, the court heard.
Imposing sentence on Friday, Judge Dara Hayes said this was serious offending and that the use of diplomatic passports was an aggravating feature.
He noted diplomatic passports “have a particular status for good reason to protect diplomatic staff as they go about the world on their duties”, not to assist with criminality.
The judge noted there is no suggestion that force or coercion was used against the women or that they were being trafficked for the purpose of forced labour, which would have a significant aggravating factor.
He noted the defence's submission that Mohamed was under pressure to get documents to help people travel abroad, as members of his family had been kidnapped, and that there is no evidence to confirm this.
'Operation for profit'
The judge said this was an “operation for profit” in which the defendant was “centrally involved”, but there is no direct evidence that the profit was for his personal use.
The judge said he took into consideration the mitigation, including the difficulties for foreign nationals serving a sentence here.
He said the presence of a significant quantity of cash would “belie the explanation he was acting under the extreme pressure he suggested".
“It seems curious that these people would allow him to travel with what could only have been a significant portion of profit”, the judge said, adding there was no explanation why Mohamed was carrying almost $14,000 in cash.
He imposed a sentence of five years, with the final six months suspended on strict conditions, and backdated it to the date that Mohamed went into custody.
