‘Altruistic’ human smuggler gets eighteen months in prison

By Isabel Hayes

An ‘altruistic’ man who tried to smuggle a Somali journalist into the country as she fled persecution has been jailed for 18 months.

Omar Adbuqadir, 31, was denied money when he gave the woman his wife’s Swedish identity card so she could enter Ireland on a flight from Madrid, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard on Tuesday.

An immigration officer at Dublin Airport noticed that the woman’s face did not match the photo on the card and her real identity documents were found after her luggage was searched. She has since applied for asylum in Ireland, which was granted, the court heard.

Adbuqadir, who lives in Sandesslatt, Sweden, pleaded guilty to one count of people smuggling at Dublin Airport on November 3 last year. He has no previous convictions, apart from a few minor traffic offences, an Interpol check showed. He has been in custody since his arrival in the country.

Garda Pat Murray told the court that Adbuqadir and the woman arrived at Dublin Airport on a flight from Madrid on the day in question, posing as a married couple. However, the journalist’s ID card did not match the facial recognition technology and the immigration officer’s suspicions were aroused.

The woman told gardaí she paid around €2,800 to a man in Somalia, who then put her in touch with Adbuqadir. She said she fled Somalia because of her work as a journalist, the court heard.

Adbuqadir, who is originally from Somalia but lives in Sweden, then met the woman after she flew to Madrid. He gave her a Swedish identity card that looked the same, which actually belonged to his wife. The court heard that dual ID involves a photo where the photo resembles the person trying to pass it off as their own identity.

Oisin Clarke BL, defending, said Adbuqadir fled the regime in Somalia at the age of 13 with his mother and siblings. His father was murdered by extremists, the court heard.

He lives in SWednesday with his wife, who recently gave birth to their third child while in custody.

said Mr Clarke Adbuqadi agreed to help the journalist flee Somalia because of his own experiences. “He did it for altruistic reasons,” he said.

Judge Martin Nolan convicted Adbuqadi and accepted he committed the crime for “altruistic purposes”. He sentenced him to 18 months, a sentence he imposed retroactively when Adbuqadi was taken into custody last November.