Up to a month in jail: nearly 500 held pre-deportation since O'Callaghan took over

PEOPLE HELD IN Ireland ahead of enforced deportation spend a median 29 days in custody before being removed from the State, records released under freedom of information show.

The figures released to The Journal show that 477 people were detained in relation to deportation orders in 2025 and up to 8 September of this year. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Council (IHREC) has expressed concern about the State’s “high level of reliance on imprisonment for immigration purposes”. 

People who haven’t complied with deportation orders in Ireland can be detained under the Immigration Act if they are considered a flight risk. 

Before detention, a letter from the justice minister is sent informing them of an order to deport, and they have a one-day window to consent, or leave Ireland voluntarily, or submit an appeal. 

The new International Protection Act states that deportation enforcement and detention are supposed to be used as a last resort after the appeals process has been exhausted. There are alternatives to detention, including requiring someone to regularly present to a garda station. 

A spokesperson said that these figures indicate that people are being detained “for extensive periods of time”, which raises questions about the “necessity and proportionality of this use of imprisonment”.

“Immigration detention is not a criminal sanction,” they said, adding that this use of prisons conflates administrative processes with criminal punishment.

Gary Gannon TD, spokesperson for the Social Democrats, said that people are “effectively being warehoused in prisons for weeks while the Minister rounds up enough people to fill a deportation flight”.

Gannon said that using prison space to “make a political point about immigration” is “reckless” against the backdrop of “dangerous” overcrowding levels in prisons.

“The Justice Minister is using scarce prison capacity in this way to bolster his tough-on-immigration credentials,” he added. 

Overall the State has taken an increasingly carceral approach towards immigration matters since Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan first announced that a further use of charter flights would increase its capacity to carry out more enforced deportations in early 2025.

Cloverhill, Mountjoy and the Dochas centre are the main prisons being used as detention facilities for those facing removal from the State.

Previously, Caron McAffrey, head of the Irish Prison Service, has called for a purpose-built deportation facility to be built.

She has said that the prison system “doesn’t have the ability to cope” with deportees being imprisoned given the already chronic overcrowding issues it is facing, with reports showing that hundreds are having to sleep on mattresses.

A report published this year stated that overcrowding in Irish prisons had reached a record level, with over 5900 prisoners in custody, despite the system only having capacity for 4736 people. Prisoner on prisoner assaults rose in 2025 too, as well as prisoner on staff assaults.

Speaking to The Journal on Thursday, Minister of State for Migration Colm Brophy said that detention is a “last resort”, but if “necessary” the State has to detain people “as part of a firm, fair, effective system around how migration works in this country”. 

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He added that the “onus” is on the individual to leave the country voluntarily when they receive a deportation order. 

According to figures from the justice department, 367 people were forcibly deported in 2025, and 288 of those were detained “in relation to deportation orders”.

The median detention period was 29 days, and that’s also been the case this year to date, as so far in 2026 277 people have been forcibly deported, and 189 people have been detained.

A Justice spokesperson said that the Immigration Act allows a person to be detained for a period no longer than 56 days before their removal from the State.

Of the 367 people forcibly deported from Ireland in 2025, 73 had previous criminal convictions.

Thirty were removed from prison under a provision allowing people serving sentences to be deported early, while a further eight were granted temporary release from prison to facilitate their deportation.

Separately, 288 people were detained in relation to deportation orders during the year.

So far this year, 277 people have been forcibly removed from Ireland under deportation orders, including 70 with previous criminal convictions. Of those 70, 24 were removed from prison under section 24 of the Prisons Act, while 40 were detained in relation to their deportation order before being removed.

In 2025, of the 73 people deported with previous convictions, 26 were convicted of drugs offences, eight of theft, seven of driving offences, seven of assault and 6 of sexual assault, with 20 recorded under “other” offences.

Of the 70 people deported so far this year who had previous convictions in Ireland, 22 were convicted of drugs offences, nine of assault and eight of driving offences, while 21 were recorded under “other” offences. None had a previous conviction for sexual assault.

‘Lack of independent oversight’

IHREC told The Journal that it has concerns that there is a lack of independent oversight of immigration detention, including in relation to removal operations.

It added that this is of particular concern given that deportations are likely to increase now that the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum has been implemented, and that now more than ever “robust, transparent and independent monitoring structures” need to be put in place.

“In our published reports and through engagements with the Department of Justice, we have highlighted gaps in monitoring and oversight,” a spokesperson said.