A NUMBER OF staff at the Russian Embassy in Dublin are in Ireland under expired visas, the Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed.
The issue arose as a result of measures introduced during the peak of the Covid-19 crisis.
The Department of Justice stopped issuing visas for re-entry to the country during the pandemic, meaning that some people living and working in Ireland saw their documentation lapse during this period.
As a consequence of rule changes brought in during the Covid crisis, diplomatic staff on expired visas are allowed stay in the country but that exemption does not apply to support staff.
Measures are being taken by the Department of Foreign Affairs to straighten out the visa issues.
The Journal has learned that the affected workers provide support services inside the embassy offices. None of them are classed as diplomats.
Sources have confirmed that there are presently 30 Russian nationals working in the Dublin embassy, including the support staff. Most embassies in Ireland hire their support staff from the local population rather than flying in workers from their home country.
As reported by this website last month, security sources have said Russia is using its Dublin embassy as a communications base to process information for European agents.
Lockdown rules
A source explained the situation regarding the visas, noting that the situation had arisen due to the suspension of visa issuance during the first Covid-19 lockdown.
Normally a diplomat requiring a visa, including those from Russia, obtains the necessary document in their country of origin before travelling to Ireland.
A number of countries and regions such as the EU, US, UK, Australia and other jurisdictions have travel agreements with Ireland whereby they do not require a visa.
In regards to Russia they are obtained from the Irish embassy in Moscow.
That visa gets the diplomat into Ireland but if they travel home and then plan to come back to Ireland they must apply for re-entry when they arrive again in this jurisdiction. The issuing of re-entry visas was postponed during the Covid-19 crisis.
In effect, this means that while diplomats are allowed stay in the country without re-entry visas, other staff are, normally, not.
The source explained: “During the Covid-19 crisis it was agreed that Russian diplomats and diplomats from other nations could use diplomatic identification documents to enter Ireland.
“However there are a number of people in the Russian Embassy and they are here on expired documentation.
“They are not hiding there, they are known and the Irish authorities are very much aware of who they are.
“There have been some discussions between Irish authorities and the Russian embassy in regard to this issue and it will be solved by late May.”
Sources have said that this is not just a Russian Embassy issue but is also a problem for other nations which require visas for entry to Ireland.
As of yesterday, 7 March, there are 63 resident diplomatic missions in Ireland with the US the highest number of registered staff at 37 while Russia is next in line with 30. China has 25 while Saudi Arabia has 24 and the UK has 23.
The US has an additional 38 Border and Customs Officers notified who work at immigration pre-clearance at airports.
These details on diplomatic staff, administrative and technical, service staff are all notified to the DFA under Article 10 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 by the individual diplomatic missions.
A number of missions employ Irish people or people who are resident in Ireland. There are no notifications for staff recruited locally and the DFA does not hold information in relation to the number of locally engaged staff.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Justice, the agency in charge of issuing visas, will begin production of the new residency documents in May for the Russian diplomats.
During a recent appearance before the Joint Committee on Defence and Foreign Affairs Russian Ambassador Yury Filatov had made a vague reference to staffing problems at the Russian embassy.
“… although we do have some current visa programmes that may be relevant. That is diplomatic life. The complement of our staff is slightly lower because of these circumstances of personnel but it is not a big deal,” Filatov said.
The Department of Justice referred The Journal to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
A Foreign Affairs spokesperson confirmed there was an issue around the issuance.
“The Department of Justice has extended immigration permissions until 31 May 2022, including re-entry visas. Re-entry visas for the diplomatic corps will resume this month,” the spokesperson said.
Nikita Isakin, press attaché at the Russian Embassy said he would “refrain from commenting”, referred The Journal to the press office of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and said “they hold all the cards in regard to this issue”.
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