It's a long story but I thought I should write it down just in case next time I will forget about this cute experience...
Since I'm working here in the Restaurant Aurora,I live in their staff hostel since September 2010. I have a student Visa here and our boss do help us to pay tax,so we have nothing to worry about.No need to worry about the immigration officer(cause we have visa).No need to worry about tax officer(cause we are paying tax).Anyway the law states that foreign students that is holding the student visa is not suppose to work more than 20 hours per week.But I do work like 38 hours a week.But that's not a problem to worry about as long as if someone ask me about my working hour I'll just tell them I work part-time only(less than 20 hours). No one will bored enough to check our working hours.
Alright,clear about the law thing. How about other staffs? Some of them have student visa and are currently paying tax. But some of them have no visa,and passport is expired as well. Same like those Indonesians that work in Msia illegally. Illegal worker. If illegal worker is discovered when they are working then the company has to fine 10K Euro. Another law again.
Now only come to the first part of the story if you are clear about the law already. So the case is few months ago we received a letter at staffs hostel. It's been sent to a person named Ching X X. No one knows who he is. But it is from the garda ( meaning police,Irish called their police as Garda ). And it is court letter that asked this person to present at court at someday in January. My colleague asked another colleague to call the landlord and ask about what happen and settle this case. But in the end they never settle the case. So two weeks ago, two garda officer showed up at our front door in the morning(me and Martin was out that day). But because those colleagues that doesn't have visa afraid to open the door so the garda left in the end. Last week Garda came again,this time with a big lorry with cage(as seen in the movie,use to lock people up one) and finally someone opened the door. Those garda officer asked about the person Ching X X. But honestly really no one knows about that guy. But because the garda came for few times already and no one opens the door,they have a warrant this time ( means they are given rights to come into our house and check anytime they want and if no one opens the door,they'll break in),but in the end they left as well.
So here comes today morning. It was 8 o'clock,everyone's asleep. Suddenly the door bell rang and rang again for a few times. Martin was the one who open the door for the Garda. This time two officer came,one male and one female,and without the big cage already. The moment Martin opened the door the male officer asked him:''how many person live inside this house?'' and Martin immediately answered him 5. (actually have 8,but 3 out of them have no visa) . They never gave Martin any chance to inform everyone in the house,so all of the staffs were still sleeping.At first,Martin came into my room and ask me to call our boss,and he shoved his phone inside his pocket after the call reached(he wanted our boss to listen to the whole conversation between all of us and the officers). Then they started to check every room. Because my room is on the first floor so the first person they checked was me. The male officer came into my room and I thought it was Martin.( without my spectacles on I can hardly see someone's face clearly). Until he said :'' hi'' only I know he is not Martin. So he asked me a lot of questions but because I was very calm and erm,seriously I did nothing wrong so I was not afraid of him,so after he looked at my passport he left my room and went to check other rooms.
At the end the two officers found 7 persons (were to be 8 but one without visa was smart enough to sneak out of the house without anyone knowing where he had gone). Well so there were two without visa left found inside the house. At first,the male officer(actually he is a sergeant) knocked on their bedroom door and the two of them were too afraid to open the door. But Martin knew even if they don't open the door the sergeant will break the door somehow. So he asked the two hiding person to open the door. Then, they showed their passports and the sergeant saw one of their passport had expired. So he said he's going to keep their passports and hand them to the immigration office, and they will have to surrender in court by a stated date.
So they left in the end. Now the two without visa are worrying. There are a few solutions but they have to go to the court first and see what they can do. Either they can buy a flight ticket and have their passports back. And then they can keep working here and throw the flight ticket away. Because the reason of buying the flight ticket is to assure to the immigration that they will left Ireland. After they show their tickets,they can throw it away if they got their passports back because passports are their own belongings. Or either they can just go back Malaysia for holiday and come back again after one or two months. When they were back,they can renew their passports ( after the passport had been renewed no one will know u had been staying in Ireland illegally cause Ireland's customs are not like England. They're not so strict like England's.) Or either they can just leave their passports at the immigration office and not having it back again, but in that case they must not live in this address again cause when they don't show up in court someone will come to this house and check if they have left or what. If they still living in here and didn't show up in court and keep staying illegally maybe they will have to go to prison or something dunno lahhh...
So the end of story. Just to let someone like u that is interested in these things to know what's happening on Earth. I dunno lah,,,but such experience is quite precious for me.
