A special Garda operation has seen a number of Brazilians deported from the Republic in recent months, with commercial flights being used.
Some 42 Brazilians, all subject to deportation orders, were removed from the State on these flights over the past three months, according to security sources.
About one third of those deported during a special Garda operation were in prison in Ireland serving custodial sentences.
The operation carried out by the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) since the start of June is part of a more aggressive approach being taken to immigration by the State over the last two years.
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Overall, the number of deportation orders signed this year, to the end of August, has exceeded 2,700. That is more than double the 1,285 deportation orders signed during the same period last year and more than three times the 857 signed in all of 2023.
Some 1,386 people have left, or been removed from, the State under various mechanisms so far this year, including forced and voluntary returns.
Though three charter flights have been used to deport 106 people from the Republic in 2025 – two to Georgia and one to Nigeria – the GNIB has used commercial flights for the deportation of Brazilian nationals.
The 2022 census recorded 27,000 Brazilians living in Ireland, though a study by the Brazilian embassy in Dublin, published last year, estimated the number at 58,500.
Of the 42 Brazilians deported on commercial flights since June, 37 were enforced deportations carried out by the GNIB.
[ Deportation orders triple as Ireland enforces a ‘firmer approach to migration’Opens in new window ]
It is understood that represents more than half the forced deportations, of all nationalities, carried out using commercial flights since the start of the year.
Most of the Brazilians deported were adult males, though more than 10 were women or children. Those deported had either failed in their application for international protection or did not have permission to be in the Republic.
The fact that 15 of those deported were serving sentences demonstrates efforts to remove prisoners from the State who are deemed a safety risk.
The Department of Justice has been working with the Garda and Irish Prison Service to identify prisoners who should be deported, with further operations expected in coming months.
Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said in June that deportations were “costly and complex”. However, it was a “priority” of his to ensure “Ireland’s immigration system is robust and rules based”.
He added that if a person who was subject to a deportation order did not leave of their own volition – including through a Government-funded voluntary return scheme – they would be removed.
Last year, 934 people left Ireland using the voluntary return programme, with 684 of those having failed in their bid to secure international protection. The number of people who availed of the voluntary return scheme last year was more than four times higher than in 2023, when 213 left the Republic via the programme.
That increase has continued this year, with about 850 people having availed of the voluntary return scheme in the six-and-a-half months to mid-July.
