“Three people arrested as part of investigation into ‘international illegal immigrant smuggling network’”
independent.ie/irish-news/th … 90164.html
“An Aer Lingus spokesperson declined to comment on the issue when contacted by Independent.ie but it is understood the company will be issuing a statement soon.”
Oh think of the pensions, think of the share price 
An extraordinary story. Aer Lingus employees operating a migrant smuggling scam - for years!
wonder if these three are the patsies.
wonder how this story will be buried so that something else makes it to Claire Byrne and vinb.
Unbelievable that this could go on for years…
rte.ie/news/2017/0123/847034 … tion-scam/
They suspect illegal immigrants have been taken from planes and escorted landside by airport employees without going through passport, customs or other security or immigration controls. They were then put in cars and trucks that had security clearance and driven from the airport to a safe house in the capital. Many were then able to travel on to other European countries having paid tens of thousands of euro to the traffickers
Don’t worry, RTE for balance have the Head of The Immigrant Council on radio 1 now saying there are massively complex reasons behind illegal migration and Gardai should be particularly sensitive towards the ‘victims’ of this criminal enterprise. Victim support has to be central to this.
What a country
This gets worse and worse, how can Dublin Airport Authority not be in this scam? driven in cars with security clearances.
Where could the flights originate?
Schengen area, then how were illegals able to board aer lingus plane? they need valid passport to leave a schengen country. cabin crews need to go through the security at airports.
Dubai? didnt aer lingus operate dubai route in the past?
UK, even though a free travel area, the security is strict.
USA, not very likely they would have cleared USA security
Could they have been meeting passengers carried by other airlines?
Matt Cooper has the same guy, Brian Killoran, on discussing this story. They’re also passing it off as a trafficking issue, people who are being coerced into moving to Ireland to end up in the sex industry etc.
Thats the angle the media are going with it by the looks of it
Unbelievable. wonder what kind of can of worms has been opened 
I suppose in the end all we can do is just sigh, shrug our shoulders and add this astonishing tale to the fake “language schools/visa factories”, sham “marriages” between Pakistani men and Lithuanian women - not to mention all the other ingenious ways of getting into soft-touch Ireland.
Anyway…just saw this in the Irish Times. (And we can be absolutely certain that this is going on all over the country.)
irishtimes.com/news/crime-an … -1.2948095
Reports that up to 70 people from abroad were being accommodated in a house in Cabinteely, Co Dublin, led to a county council inspection for health and safety reasons, Dublin Circuit Civil Court has heard.
Dozens of South Americans and eastern Europeans were unlawfully being rented “living space” in the house in dangerous, unhealthy and cramped conditions, the court was told. “It has come to the council’s notice that the three-storey dwelling is being used as other than a private dwelling with up to 17 individuals in one room and about 36 people housed in the basement,” Mr O’Connell told the court.
Given what went on it sounds like there would have to be a bit of money involved. Trafficking isn’t that implausible, is it?
So it’s China - Rome - Dublin. That means Ireland is the end destination. But why Ireland? Do they get fake passports or something here or nip up the North? Why would they come to Ireland when they can stay in Rome within Schengen? Something much bigger is happening…
A very poor reflection on the overall security practices at the Airport. That this has gone on undetected for a very sustained period is worrying not least for air passenger flight safety.
Why would someone pay 20k to a smuggler in order to gain entry to work in Ireland for a minimum wage. Did these people have much more sinister purposes in mind using Ireland as a side door entry into the E.U. ???
the same Dublin Airport that offers security queue skipping of €6.99 to bypass the long queues at the security check.
massive security breach. people need to be seen to be fired.
Maybe it’s easier to get a social security number in Ireland than other EU countries?
Maybe there is a link to ‘living’ in Ireland to get other EU residency status - as in Ireland is less stringent than other jurisdictions?
I know *ChickenParmentier *wrote a very very long post on population/ppsn/census discrepancies…
It’s hard to know what’s more shocking the story or RTEs and Today FMs editorial decisions on its reporting.
Frances Fitzgerald is trying to link it to the trafficking of women for sex. Despite the fact it was a 28 year old man who was arrested as the illegal immigrant ! Is she trying to harness a bit of the anti Trump girl power angle or is she just clueless ?
Surely there must be quite large numbers of Airport staff involved - both directly and indirectly? How on earth could a small group operate this major security breach/scam unless a lot of blind eyes were turned?
And how can this not cause a crisis of confidence among the international air travelling community? (If you can smuggle people *from *planes bypassing all security and customs so easily - you can also do the reverse.)
Purely anecdotal from my observations of people walking around the city, but there does seem to be a far higher concentration of Chinese people around than the official figures suggest and it has become particularly pronounced in the last year or so…
So does the person get singled out by the onboard staff for their special treatment or how does it work? Something like this must go through almost every layer and procedure, it sounds very like New York’s finest taxi service from The Usual Suspects.
The smugglers would need to know what shifts the accomplices are due to be on duty in the Airport and then book a flight at shortish notice ( most probably one that does not use an Airbridge to discharge the passengers) and then filter out the illegal person ( s) as they walk across the tarmac. Having said that surely CCTV would pick up this activity