Court proceedings brought against alleged illegal immigrants as part of Operation Hyphen across the State could be struck out if courts follow a ruling at Ennis District Court yesterday.
As part of the operation in County Clare last week, 30 premises were searched across the county, resulting in 12 people being brought before the court charged with various offences under the Aliens Act.
The people charged included four Chinese, three South Africans, three Brazilians, one Thai and one Malaysian - they were 12 of 74 people arrested and charged as a result of Operation Hyphen, which was carried out by the National Immigration Bureau, in conjunction with gardaí.
The County Clare cases were adjourned yesterday to a special sitting of Ennis District Court where, following an application by solicitor Ms Catriona Carmody, Judge Joseph Mangan struck out all charges brought against the non-nationals.
Ms Carmody successfully argued that the charges against the non-nationals were defective because Section 2 of the 1999 Immigration Act was not cited on the charge sheet.
Ms Carmody argued that Section 2 of the Act gives statutory effect to the Aliens Order of 1946 which the non-nationals were charged under.
She said: "Arising from that, the charges should be struck out." Judge Mangan agreed.
"It seems to me that the charges must fall," the judge said and allowed 11 of the 12 to go free - the 12th, a South African, failed to turn up for court and a bench warrant was served.
Det Garda Michael Gaynor of the National Immigration Bureau confirmed after court that the charges struck out in court yesterday were similar to the ones drafted nationwide by the National Immigration Bureau against non-nationals as part of Operation Hyphen.
Det Garda Gaynor said: "I will now be making a report to my superiors as to the ruling of the judge and what transpired in court."
He said that any decision to re-enter the charges against the non-nationals would be a decision for his superiors.
An employer of five of the people before the court, Mr Jim White of the White Hotel Group said after court: "I am delighted that the people have got off, but it is only on a technicality.
"An operation like Operation Hyphen is crazy when you consider that we have 14 applications since last December with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment for the renewal of work permits and they are still not processed.
"These applications should not take six or seven months, it should be a matter of weeks.
"All of these people want to do is work. Eighty five per cent of the 250 staff with our hotel group in Lisdoonvarna are foreign and I can't speak highly enough of them."
