Tommy Robinson could potentially be stripped of his Irish passport after parliamentarians raised concerns over falsified information when Canadian immigration authorities detained him in June.
The former EDL leader was arrested in Calgary in June on suspicion of committing an immigration offence, with an image of the immigration authority form tweeted by Robinson after he was detained having been ordered to stay in the country and hand over his passport.
On it, Robinson states that his country of birth was Ireland, when he was in fact born in Luton, England.
His mother was an Irish immigrant to Britain, which is how he obtained the passport in the first place and has been allowed to travel freely around Europe in a bid to evade the UK criminal justice system.
Charles Flanagan, a former justice minister who chairs the Irish parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committee, says Robinson claiming he was born in Ireland raises questions over the integrity of the Irish passport system which “must be taken most seriously”.
“Eligibility for Irish citizenship and grounds for holding an Irish passport are clearly defined in law. Any alleged violation must not only be taken seriously but acted upon and subject to formal investigation by the appropriate authorities.”
Two other members of the Irish parliament also expressed concern. Duncan Smith, a Labour party Dáil member, said: “If there are any question marks over the integrity of someone’s passport then that must be investigated. Accurate country of birth information is integral to any passport application.”
He called on the UK Foreign Office and Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs to liaise in relation to the accuracy of information given. “We must take on all far-right activism when we see it. If someone is travelling on an Irish passport and fomenting far-right hate then we have a responsibility to explore all methods of pressure to stop it,” Smith added.
“It is concerning that someone who is inciting racist violence across Britain and Ireland appears to be travelling on an Irish passport,” said Paul Murphy, a socialist parliamentarian.
“It is doubly concerning that the Canadian documentation suggests that his place of birth was falsely given as Ireland. Is that what it says on his passport? If so, his passport would have been issued on a fraudulent basis and could be revoked.”
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