Debate contribution: Illegal Immigration
Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on .
- MLA
- Mrs Naomi Long
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 30 June 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Illegal Immigration
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5653272
Read the official Assembly record
Text
If the Member had been listening, he would know that what I actually said was that, when the numbers are drilled down into, very few people enter Northern Ireland illegally. I did say, however, that some may become illegal while they are here, if, for example, their claim for asylum is rejected and their appeal against that decision is then rejected. That makes them illegal, because they then have to be removed. If 1,000 people are deported — relative to the population, that is a relatively small number — because they have become illegal, that shows that the system is dealing with those who do not have a right to remain. The problem is that, when that discourse happens in the public arena, migration is conflated with illegal immigration all the time. Those who listen to the loud and angry voices on illegal immigration are not looking at the individuals whose windows they are smashing, whose cars they are burning, whom they are harassing on their way to hospital and whom they are attacking in the street. They are not looking at their immigration status, nor should they be, by the way. I find it just as offensive that people in my constituency are being stopped in the street and having their papers demanded off them, as though it is some kind of SS operation. That is not acceptable. To be absolutely clear, if people are being deported, it is because the immigration system is doing its job.
248 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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