IMMIGRANTS FEEL “like criminals” when renewing their immigration status, it has been claimed.
One man, writing to Metro Éireann on the issue, described as “shocking” the process through which immigrants renew their Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) card or residence permit, when fingerprints are taken.
“This is a very shocking thing, especially when the fingerprints are taken in front of the children,” he said. “It sends a very serious and disturbing message to the mind of a child that his or her parents are criminals.”
He claimed the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) office in Dublin does “not take the fingerprint” when immigrants are renewing their residence permit, but that immigrants are fingerprinted at Garda stations outside Dublin in such circumstances.
“It sends a message that the GNIB treats people living in Dublin differently to the people living outside Dublin,” he said. “There is no consistency.”
Asked to confirm fingerprinting practices in and outside Dublin in relation to immigrants seeking to renew their GNIB card, a Garda spokesperson told Metro Éireann: “Under the Aliens Act 2004 any non Irish nationals seeking permission to remain in the State may be asked to provide fingerprints.”
The force was also asked if best practice guidelines had been established when it comes to fingerprinting for non-offence related purposes. No comment was provided.
Fingerprinting of non-EU migrants was introduced in 2008. Commenting at the time, the Department of Justice – which oversees the INIS – told Metro Éireann that the main purpose of taking fingerprints was to verify a person’s identity and “to then establish who we are dealing with and what rights and entitlements they may have”.
It said the use of biometrics, of which fingerprinting is one example, is an “internationally accepted method of ‘fixing or locking’ identities” and that it “actually provides protection to the individual in that it prevents the fraudulent use of their identity”.
