Pork sausages were served to men being deported to Pakistan as part of a full Irish breakfast despite the country's Muslim-majority population, a human rights monitoring report has revealed. The catering blunder took place on Ireland's first chartered deportation flight to Pakistan, which removed 24 men from Dublin to Islamabad on September 23 last year.
A monitor appointed by Ireland's Department of Justice said gardai complained that the food served on board was 'of a lower standard than expected' and that including pork sausages in a 'full Irish breakfast' was 'inappropriate'. The report noted halal food was understood to have been available, but this had 'not specified in the flight brief'. Following the report, aviation company Air Partner, which operates Ireland's deportation flights, changed the catering menu for future deportation flights.
The details emerged in a series of deportation monitoring reports obtained by the Irish Times following a Freedom of Information battle with the department. The Pakistan flight, which cost €473,000 (£410,000), formed part of Ireland's wider crackdown on illegal immigration. Ireland also chartered deportation flights to Georgia, Nigeria and Romania last year at a total cost of approximately €1 million, with at least 205 illegal immigrants and convicted criminals removed on the flights, according to the Department of Justice.
Under Irish immigration law, asylum seekers can be offered up to €10,000 to voluntarily return to their home country. Those who refuse to leave after receiving a deportation order can be forcibly removed, including on chartered flights. The Pakistan flight was accompanied by garda officers, a doctor, an interpreter and an independent monitor tasked with overseeing the treatment of deportees and reporting on the use of restraints and overall conditions onboard.
The report said the operation was carried out 'humanely' and with respect for the 'rights and dignity of the returnees', although a number of issues were raised during the journey. Two of the men being deported had been assessed as high-risk, one because of previous offending and another due to behaviour while in prison. Several gardai were assigned to escort each deportee.
One man became distressed while boarding after believing a garda was filming him on a mobile phone. The report stated he was eventually persuaded to board and it was later 'confirmed that recording was taking place'. Shortly after landing in Islamabad, two deportees returned to the aircraft in an agitated state, with one claiming his mobile phone had not been returned and another unable to locate his luggage. The report said both men were reassured their belongings would be handed back, adding that delays involving deportees' possessions was a recurring issue raised across several flights.
Jim O'Callaghan, Ireland's justice minister, has also suggested he would be open to transferring unsuccessful asylum seekers to processing hubs outside the EU. In April, Italy moved a step closer to being allowed to send migrants to Albania after an adviser to the EU's top court said the scheme was legal. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has spent up to €670 million building two migrant processing centres in northern Albania, although the plan has faced repeated legal challenges since launching in 2023. Britain's own Rwanda deportation scheme was also bogged down in legal battles before Labour scrapped it after coming to power last July. Under new proposals, failed asylum seekers in Britain could instead be deported to North Macedonia as part of efforts to reduce the number of small boat crossings across the English Channel.
