by Jim Cusack, The Irish Independent
The Government was warned that Eastern European crime bosses involved in human trafficking planned to send thousands of Roma gypsies into Ireland.
The first wave of 220 gypsies arrived here in January, including some of the 50 to 70 still encamped yesterday on the M50 roundabout.
But many more would have followed if this first group succeeded in gaining asylum status and social welfare benefits - much of which would have been creamed off by the shadowy crime bosses back in Eastern Europe.
Early yesterday, on advice and information from the Garda's National Bureau of Immigration, officers served papers on the Ballymun gypsies which will lead to their removal from their current site within the coming weeks and will block the gangs' plans to flood the country with desperate members of the Roma community. It is believed moves to deport the gypsies may begin within weeks.
A total of 86 documents were served at the Ballymun encampment and at a derelict House on the Old Swords Road.
Moves to stop the influx - which was anticipated for months in advance of the European Union's acceptance of Romania and Bulgaria into the EU - were put in place within days of the arrival of the 220 gypsies between January 10 and 17. All immediately applied for asylum status.
On January 18, the then Tanaiste and Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, announced that Ireland had already ratified the treaty governing the entry of Romania and Bulgaria into the EU. The treaty stipulates that no citizen from one EU country can seek asylum in another EU state. Romania, from where the gypsies claim to have been the subject of human rights violations and victimisation, fully endorses Ireland's position on the issue. The asylum applications were all turned down.
When it became clear to most of the 220 gypsies that they were not to get social welfare payments - a large percentage of which gardai believe would have to be remitted to the crime bosses in Eastern Europe - most disappeared and are believed to have returned to other EU states, including Spain, from which they are believed to have travelled from toIreland in January.
Gardai believe the group of 50 to 70 encamped at the roundabout were either abandoned to their own devices or left as part of a plan to embarrass the Government into providing social welfare payments because of the conditions they have chosen to live under.
The group's claim for asylum and social welfare benefits are supported by a group of non-governmental organisations in Ireland. Last week the State-funded Travellers' support organisation, Pavee Point, accused the Government of allowing a "major humanitarian crisis" to develop at the roundabout and called for the granting of aid to the group.
Gardai, however, do not accept that the group is involuntarily destitute and believe that some are involved in crime. They have been monitoring the movements to and from the encampment over the last two months. Their surveillance has shown that a considerable number of the women, including those with babies, are taken by cars and coaches from the site to beg while some of the men are suspected of being involved in crime, including shoplifting and handbag snatching.
Plain clothes garda units have been deployed in the city centre to target men and women from the site suspected of shoplifting and muggings, following an increase in complaints from shop owners and the public in the past two months.
Garda sources have also confirmed that one of the older men was watched as he deposited €1,400 in a Western Union account at an office in O'Connell Street in Dublin earlier this month. It is believed this was part of the remittance that families here send back to crime bosses in Romania.
There has been close co-operation between gardai, the Department of Justice and their counterparts in Romania over the issue. The Romanian police have identified several of the men using the site as having convictions for crime.
Upon the arrival of the group of 220 Roma, the then Tanaiste and Minister for Justice announced that with effect from 1 January 2007 "asylum applications from nationals of EU Member States are being deemed inadmissible for processing by the Refugee Applications Commissioner". At the time, little attention was paid to Mr McDowell's announcement as the Government and gardai had remained tight-lipped about the suspected invasion by Eastern European gangs who control the gypsies.
The gardai's suspicions were confirmed within less than a fortnight of Romania's accession to the EU, when the 220 gypsies arrived and all immediately lodged applications with the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner.
In the past five years Ireland has tightened its asylum laws and, from a high of 11,634 applications in 2002, this number fell by 63 per cent to 4,323 last year. The Government has also closed the loophole allowing illegal immigrants who give birth in Ireland to claim citizenship.
It is understood that under advice from social services in the HSE and Fingal County Council, the Government has already decided that it would be potentially dangerous to allow the gypsies to remain on the roundabout. Three children, including a six-month-old who was found in Dublin city centre where his mother was begging, have been taken into care. Last week a 63-year-old woman was taken to hospital complaining of stomach problems.
Problems with Roma gypsies have been encountered across Europe for years. Last year the French authorities uncovered a baby-selling ring operated by Roma gypsies, six of whom were convicted of buying 23 babies in Bulgaria for sale to desperate couples in France. The children were all given birth to by young women, all believed to have been enslaved in the Eastern Europe sex trade.
None of the Bulgarian mothers identified sought the return of their children, it is believed because of fear that the children would be abducted or killed.
There are believed to be between 3,000 and 4,000 Roma gypsies already in Ireland. While many Roma have settled and have sought and gained employment, many others remain dependent on State handouts, begging and crime.
Gardai in Dublin city centre say that over the past year Roma gypsies have been arrested for a variety of crimes ranging from highly organised ATM fraud, involving cards either stolen or copied in other EU states, to handbag snatching, shoplifting and pilfering.
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