Politicians in Ireland have said the use of an airport in County Clare by planes deporting Palestinians from the United States to Israel is "reprehensible".
A private jet owned by Donald Trump donor Gil Dezer was chartered by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for two separate flights transporting detainees to Israel, a Guardian investigation revealed this week.
The flights departed from the US on January 21 and February 1. Both made refueling stops at Shannon Airport, in western Ireland, reports The Guardian.
The Dezer family's real estate company has built a series of Trump-branded residential towers in Miami. He has recently spoken of his "love" for the US president, with whom he claims to have a 20-year friendship.
Some of the people on board the Dezer flights said their wrists and ankles were tied for the duration of the journey. After arriving in Tel Aviv, they were apparently taken to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Irish government said in a statement that, as the flights stopped in the country for "non-traffic purposes" and were "not picking up or setting down passengers", they did not require prior approval from the transport department.
However, on Friday, opposition politicians expressed concern about this practice to the Irish Times.
Duncan Smith, the Labour Party's foreign affairs spokesman in Ireland, said: "It is absolutely reprehensible that any ICE deportation flight is allowed to stop and refuel at Shannon. The Taoiseach and the Minister for Transport must step in and ensure this ends." He added: "Ireland cannot be in any way complicit in these ICE flights."
Roderic O'Gorman, the leader of the country's Green Party, said it was "deeply disturbing" to learn "that Shannon is being used to facilitate the atrocious actions of Donald Trump's ICE."
Patricia Stephenson, the Social Democrats' foreign policy spokeswoman, said the government "must make a statement on whether it knowingly facilitated these flights." She told the Irish Times that she believed the human rights of those on board had been violated.
Dezer's plane was chartered through Journey Aviation, a Florida-based company that is regularly used by US authorities to provide private jets. The company declined to comment on the flights to Israel.
According to Human Rights First (HRF), which tracks deportation flights, Dezer’s plane – which he has described as his “favorite toy” – was first chartered for deportation flights last October. The organization said the plane was used to transport detainees to Kenya, Liberia, Guinea and Eswatini, before the latest trips to Israel.
One of the people on board the first flight was Maher Awad, 24. Originally from the West Coast, he has lived in the US for nearly a decade. He has a partner and a baby in Michigan.
“They left us like animals on the side of the road,” Awad said. “We went to a nearby house, knocked on the door and were like, ‘Please help us.’”
In an email, Dezer told the Guardian that he was “never aware of the names” of those traveling on his plane when it was privately chartered by Journey, or of the purpose of the flight. “The only thing I am informed of is the dates of use,” he said. He did not respond to further questions about the Trump administration’s use of his plane to deport Palestinians via Israel.
Aviation industry sources have estimated that the flights would have cost ICE between $400,000 and $500,000.
A spokesman for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to questions about deportation flights to Israel, but said: “If a judge finds that an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we will remove him. Period.”
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