63 South Africans, consisting of 54 adults and 9 children, have been removed from Ireland by charter flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ireland\u2019s Justice, Home Affairs, and Migration Minister, Jim O\u2019Callaghan, confirmed completion of a charter operation to South Africa to effect deportation orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The flight departed Dublin Airport at 17h05 on Saturday, 28 February 2026, and landed in Johannesburg shortly after 4h00 on Sunday, 1 March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The returnees were accompanied on the flight by members of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na, medical staff, an interpreter, and a human rights observer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the second charter operation this year, and the eighth since the recommencement of charter flights to effect removals and deportation orders in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would like to acknowledge that the majority of South African nationals resident in Ireland are doing so legally,\u201d said Minister of State Colm Brophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He explained that these South Africans entered Ireland through the various legal pathways available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey are welcome and contribute immensely to our economy and society,\u201d Brophy said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the group of South Africans who were deported did not follow the traditional legal route and were not in the country legally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ten of the adults had criminal convictions in Ireland, ranging from domestic violence to drug trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their removal dovetails with parallel policing operations such as Operation Tara, related to drug networks, and Operation Moonridge, linked to sex-offender management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commenting on the charter flight, Minister O\u2019Callaghan said they would increase the options available to An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na to effect orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCharter flights are now a routine and essential part of immigration enforcement for the state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWithout effective enforcement measures, our immigration laws would be undermined. I want to ensure that there is public confidence in the application of our laws.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf a person does not have a legal permission to be in the State, or has been involved in criminality, they will be removed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Voluntary return is an option open to people who have no legal status in Ireland, including those who are refused International Protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where this option is taken up, a deportation order is not issued in respect of that person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
63 South Africans, consisting of 54 adults and 9 children, have been removed from Ireland by charter flight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":852731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2482,24907,24908,24909,853],"class_list":["post-852728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-ireland","tag-jim-ocallaghan","tag-operation-moonridge","tag-operation-tara","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852728"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":852732,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852728\/revisions\/852732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}