UK Healthcare assistant jailed for helping woman enter Ireland on 'lookalike' passport
Natasha Reid
A 47-year-old healthcare assistant has been jailed for 18 months for smuggling a fellow Somali woman into Ireland, saying she was protecting her from a forced marriage in her home country.
Muna Sharif, with an address at Bodmin Grove, Birmingham, in the UK, was before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday, accompanied by the woman, whom she now claims is her sister.
She had pleaded guilty to providing a fraudulent identity document, in the form of a Swedish “lookalike” passport, and to intentionally assisting the entry of a person into the State on 10th April last.
Detective Garda Kerrie Sullivan of the Garda National Immigration Bureau testified that she was contacted by Immigration Control at Dublin Airport that day, when a woman presented a passport with a photograph that did not match her. The woman admitted that the Swedish passport, in the name Badra Mohammad Ahmed, was not hers and immediately claimed asylum.
Det Gda Sullivan said that this woman, Asia Mohammad Ahmed, had travelled together with the accused from Düsseldorf, but had disembarked separately and presented at separate immigration booths. She explained that this is a tactic often used to create distance between the facilitator and the person being smuggled.
The court heard that the accused was observed in the baggage hall looking towards Ms Ahmed, and was seen to take a suitcase with a name matching that on the passport.
Records showed that the accused had booked and paid for the flight for Ms Ahmed to Dublin using a bank card found on her at her arrest. Her phone was searched at a later date, and a WhatsApp thread was found between her and the genuine owner of the Swedish passport, in which the accused offered her 1,500 Swedish Krona (€135) in return for its use.
The accused told gardaí that she had been asked by a third party to travel from Birmingham to Düsseldorf to meet the Somali national and bring her to Dublin. She said she was given a valid passport to bring from the UK.
She said that she was to be reimbursed for the money that she had spent, but was not making any money herself.
However, this was not accepted by the State, and €1,000 found on her at the time will be subject to a forfeiture application.
Her barrister told the detective that Sharif says that Ms Ahmed is in fact her sister, but that there was no DNA to prove that. She claimed that she did not say this in interview as she didn’t want to get her sister in trouble.
Det Gda Sullivan agreed that there is an active conflict in Somalia, with a terrorist organisation in control of the region. She was then asked about Ms Ahmed fleeing the area to avoid being forced into a marriage.
“The flight was from Düsseldorf, which is in a safe EU country,” replied D Gda Sullivan, explaining that she had lived in Libya for four years after leaving Somalia before moving into Europe via Milan.
She also said that the accused woman’s explanation for the €1,000 found on her was ‘very inconsistent’.
The court heard that Sharif, who had arrived in the UK in 2002, had since become a naturalised citizen there. She has never been in trouble before and is now suspended from her employment as a result of this offence.
Her barrister said that she felt morally obliged to help. While she’s extremely regretful, he said, she felt it was important that her sister, who was in her 20s, leave Somalia and come to a country such as Ireland.
He asked the court to accept that they are sisters, or that she was trying to help a fellow Somali female avoid a forced marriage.
Judge Orla Crowe noted that two things were being contended for, either that she was her sister, or that she was helping a female Somali to leave.
She said her contention that she was unaware that it was a serious criminal offence was ‘simply not credible’, given her experience of the asylum process in the UK.
“Explanations have been many and varied,” she said, noting that Germany is a country that provides asylum.
She imposed an 18-month sentence and backdated it to when she went into custody following her arrest.
