A foreign national discovered on the side of a motorway with no identification and no English has been remanded in custody at Cloverhill Prison because he has no passport or identity papers.
The man, who gave his name as “Walli Ullah”, said he is 21-years-old, from Afghanistan, and travelled to Ireland as a stowaway in a lorry.
He was discovered on the side of the M7 near Naas, Co Kildare, two weeks ago by a member of the public.
Last week, a spokesman for the Irish Road Haulage Association said hauliers travelling through the ferry port of Calais in northern France were coming under threat from “increasingly desperate” migrants.
“Drivers’ lives are being threatened unless they allow migrants to stow away in their trailers,” he said. “They are expected to police the situation themselves to ensure they are not unknowingly smuggling migrants. The situation is out of control.”
Mr Ullah’s solicitor, Conal Boyce, told RTE Radio One’s Morning Ireland his client “doesn’t speak a word of English” and there has been “a lot of difficulty” obtaining an appropriate translator.
“His language is Pashto,” said Mr Boyce. “[On Monday] we had to use a man whose language is Farsi but they were able to communicate sufficiently for us to have a conversation.
“But it’s difficult for him because he speaks not a word of English. I think when he was found, he didn’t even know where he was.”
When the man was discovered, he was arrested because as a non-Irish national legally in the State must be able to produce a passport or a recognised proof of identification.
“He has no ID, so that’s actually a criminal offence,” said Mr Boyce.
“The judge at Naas District Court took a very humane attitude considering the maximum penalty for this is a €3,000 fine and/or 12 months imprisonment.
“[The judge] had considerable sympathy for him in all of his circumstances and said perhaps he is a man who is really entitled to refugee status.”
Mr Boyce said the judge applied the probation act, which means that although the facts are proved, no conviction is recorded.
The man was then released but immediately re-arrested for the same offence. He made no application for bail and was remanded in Cloverhill Prison.
“The only thing we could do in the end was have him remanded in Cloverhill Prison where, in fairness, there is another humane regime. The office of the refugee applications commission will come in and try to help him out as best it can,” said Mr Boyce.
“He has said he’s from Afghanistan and that he arrived in a lorry, or on a lorry, or under a lorry.
“It’s likely he will be accepted into the refugee status application process, through the prison service, who are very humane people, and who have a regime in place for doing this sort of thing,” Mr Boyce.
“Eventually I imagine he will be accepted into the process and brought into some sort of assisted living situation.
“For the moment he’s a person in custody for a number of reasons. He has no address, he has no income, he has no English, and we only have his word for who he is.”
