Foreign-born personnel provide Defence Forces with added expertise
Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Vice Admiral Mark Mellett, congratulates five foreign-born Naval Service recruits who passed out from training in 2021. They are Luis Eduardo Espindola Caldas (Brazil), Filip Bezjuk (Croatia), Ansoumane Firkins (Guinea), Raul Muresan (Romania) and Daniels Tuceks (Latvia). There are now 244 foreign-born recruits from 31 countries in the ranks of the army, navy and air corps.
Latest figures show the Defence Forces have foreign-born personnel from 31 different countries, providing the military with the expertise to communicate in several languages across the globe.
Apart from Irish-born personnel, there are now 244 foreign-born in the ranks of the army, navy and air corps.
Figures released to the by the Defence Forces press office show that by far the largest contingent of foreign-born personnel come from our nearest neighbour, Britain, with a total of 110. The second highest category, at 57, were born in Poland.
There are also several Eastern European countries represented. There are currently 17 members of the Defence Forces who were born in Lithuania, seven from Romania, four from Latvia and three each from Bulgaria and Hungary.
From Western Europe, there are five Italians, three French, three Germans, three Slovakians, two Dutch and one each from Switzerland, Austria and Belgium.
In addition, there are three from Finland and one from Norway, two from Bosnia, two from Serbia and one each from Croatia, Greece and Moldova.
From further afield there are five who were born in South Africa and one each born in Syria, Iran, Brazil and Canada. There is one each from Ukraine and Russia and another one from nearby Belarus.
The mix also means there are a number of different religions represented in the country’s military. They include one Rastafarian, the first and only member of that religion to have so far joined.
Ansoumane Firkins passed out with other recruits in April 2021. He was born in Slovakia to parents originally from Guinea in West Africa. Because of his religion, he is allowed to keep his dreadlock hair.
The multiplicity of languages spoken by many of the foreign-born recruits provides the Defence Forces with major advantages, especially when on overseas missions as they can be used instead of civilian UN translators.
There are strict criteria under Defence Forces regulations to join the country’s military. To be eligible a person must be an Irish citizen, or a refugee as defined under the Refugee Act 1996. In this case they must provide documentation to prove so.
They can also be a national of a European Economic Area country, which includes Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Britain.
If other non-nationals wish to join the Defence Forces, they must have a minimum of three years legal and unbroken residency in Ireland and must meet residency and work permit conditions as laid down by the government.
However, PDForra, which represents enlisted personnel, says there is still an issue with delays in getting some foreign-born naturalised personnel Irish passports, even though they’ve sworn allegiance to this State.
PDForra president Mark Keane said delays are caused because there’s an impasse between the departments of justice and foreign affairs which is holding up application processing.
