Border Management Unit 10th Anniversary

On 16 September 2014, the then Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald, announced that frontline immigration functions at Dublin Airport would be transferring to the Department from An Garda Síochána. This announcement was made following a successful pilot at the airport, where 10 members of the newly formed Border Management Unit (BMU) began working in passport control alongside members of An Garda Síochána.

On 26 January 2015, over 50 new members of staff were recruited to the Department to join the BMU. This saw civilian Immigration Officers take over immigration control duties in Terminal 1 of Dublin Airport initially, followed by part responsibility for Terminal 2 in October 2015. The completion of the full civilianisation programme across Dublin Airport was achieved in 2017. With this, the Department of Justice assumed responsibility for the vast majority of the State’s frontline border functions, as at the time 85% of air passengers and 80% of all passengers travelling to Ireland arrived through Dublin airport.

Dublin Airport is one of the busiest airports in Europe and the BMU processed 16.6 million arriving passengers in 2023, setting a new record for the number of arriving passengers processed. Depending on the time of year, between 40,000 and 60,000 passengers are processed daily by BMU.

Officers of the BMU are often the first point of contact for arriving passengers to the State. ?A central part of the Officer’s role is to assess a passenger’s individual circumstances to determine if they should be granted permission to enter Ireland or if they should be refused leave to land. Members of BMU consider complex cases daily in real time, while being alert for any human trafficking and safeguarding concerns which may arise. ?Referrals by BMU of suspected smuggling or trafficking cases to An Garda Síochána have contributed to national and international investigations into serious crimes.

There are currently 158 Immigration Control Officers, 16 Immigration Control Supervisors and 3 Immigration Control Managers working as frontline staff in Dublin Airport, who are supported by a back office team and lead by Senior Management.

Career Opportunities

The BMU is expected to expand further over the coming years and a competition to recruit Immigration Control Officers to the BMU is expected in 2025.