Minister for Justice Michael McDowell is refusing a large number of applications from foreign prisoners who want to serve their sentences in their own countries, because he believes they would be released early under generous remission schemes in other jurisdictions.
A report on the transfer of sentenced people to and from the State in 2005 revealed that while UK nationals imprisoned here are regularly transferred to British prisons, those from other jurisdictions are rarely approved for transfer.
In the report, which Mr McDowell is to present to the Oireachtas, he writes: "Seven applicants were refused by me in 2005. These applicants were principally refused owing to the substantial reduction in sentence, due to divergent rates of remission, which the applicants would have attracted in the event of a transfer."
The report, seen by The Irish Times, says that since 1996, when Ireland put into practice the Council of Europe convention on the transfer of inmates, 198 foreign national inmates have applied to be transferred to a prison in their own country.
Less than one-third of these, only 63, have been granted a transfer.
Virtually all of these, 60 inmates, were from the UK. The other three transferred were from Sweden, Holland and Germany. Since the transfer scheme began operating, all of the applicants from France, Canada, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Albania have either been refused or have not yet been decided upon. Only three foreign prisoners were transferred last year.
The numbers have remained low in recent years at between three and eight transfers per year since 2000. This is despite an exponential increase in foreign nationals in prison. Around 12 per cent of the current prison population were born outside the State.
The convention, which is based on humanitarian considerations, is meant to help overcome difficulties for prisoners serving sentences in foreign jurisdictions, such as the absence of contact with relatives and differences in languages and cultures. Twenty Irish citizens imprisoned abroad applied under the convention last year to be transferred back to Ireland and five transfers, all from the UK, were completed.
The Department of Justice has received 291 inward transfer applications since the scheme began.
