"Illegal" US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) flights – carrying deportees to African countries they have no personal ties to – refuelled at Shannon Airport this July and August.
It’s Simon Harris’s Department of Foreign Affairs’ position that such allegedly illegal flights, which touched down in Shannon, don’t need to seek diplomatic clearance from the state.
This summer Labour leader Ivana Bacik, speaking about another illegal flight conducted by the same plane, said, “An Irish airport is being used as an instrument to violate human rights.”
The state meanwhile begins its prosecution of three anti-war activists in Ennis this morning with the three charged with trespassing after their alleged attempts to inspect a US war plane.
Among the deportees on the flight that went through Shannon was a Jamaican citizen allegedly illegally deported to Eswatini and imprisoned there without charge for two months.
A second flight that stopped at the Clare airport transported up to seven deportees to Rwanda – even though they had no personal connection with that state.
The 'illegal' ICE flight touches down in Shannon
On 14 July this year a Journey Aviation-operated Gulfstream GV aircraft with registration number N588AT left El Paso in Texas. It later arrived at Shannon Airport, according to flight data uncovered by The Ditch.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement – ICE – chartered the flight and it was carrying five men born in Jamaica, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen.
They had all completed prison sentences in the US. At least three had been released from prison and rejoined their communities without incident before being detained by ICE.
The flight left Shannon and arrived in Djibouti on 15 July. A US Air Force plane took the five men to Eswatini later that day.
Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is a southern African country accused of serious human rights abuses and whose leader has been described as a “notorious dictator”.
One of the men onboard the flight that arrived in Shannon Airport was Jamaican man Orville Etoria.
Orville, who had served a lengthy prison sentence in the United States, was illegally deported and imprisoned in Eswatini without charge or access to a lawyer for two months, according to his legal team.
The 62-year-old was repatriated from Eswatini to Jamaica just two weeks ago.
On 15 August the same plane touched down in Shannon Airport after arriving from San Antonio, Texas.
It was carrying up to seven deportees to Rwanda – none of those onboard had personal ties to that state. The flight arrived in Rwandan capital Kigali the next day.
‘These are deportation flights that are illegal’
Earlier this year the New York Times reported that the same plane stopped at Shannon Airport on 21 May, 2025 as part of an ICE deportation to South Sudan. A US court ruled this deportation unlawful.
In the Dáil the next day Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik raised the plane’s presence in Ireland.
“Donald Trump's deportation flights are refuelling in Ireland at Shannon Airport. These are deportation flights that are illegal and taking place in violation of a US court order. In other words, an Irish airport is being used as an instrument to violate human rights,” said Bacik on 22 May, 2025.
Tánaiste and foreign affairs minister Simon Harris claimed the flight was operated by a civil aircraft and that “no diplomatic clearance would have been sought or would have been required”.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has been contacted for comment.
