TWO MEN FOUND hiding in toilets at Shannon airport in the early hours of this morning after disembarking a Ryanair flight are to spend tonight in Limerick prison on alleged immigration offences.

At Kilrush District Court today, the two men both claiming to be Chinese nationals, appeared after being charged with landing in the State without the proper documentation including a valid passport contrary to section 11 of the Immigration Act 2004.

In court today, Det Garda Ciaran Keoghan told the court that he found Lin Delin (30) of no fixed abode and Li Hu (26) of no fixed abode in the ladies and gents toilets in the airport terminal sometime after 2am this morning.

Det Keoghan said that in response to caution and charge at Shannon Garda Station later, Mr Delin said: “I am claiming asylum.”

Det Keoghan said that the Ryanair flight from Girona landed shortly after 2am on Tuesday morning.

He said: “The two seconded themselves in the toilets in the terminal building and I had to go check the toilets and I found one man in the ladies and one man in the gents.”

He said: “We would always check the toilets after flights.”

Det Keoghan told the court that the two had no documentation and he later found the remains of a Japanese passport from the aircraft.

Solicitor for the two, Tara Godfrey said that the two men deny that the Japanese passport recovered from the toilet of the aircraft was theirs.

Ms Godfrey said that she has instructions to plead guilty to the charges before the court in Ennis on Wednesday and that she wasn’t seeking bail for her clients at this time.

Ms Godfrey said that she was seeking a Mandarin translator for court on Wednesday and a translator in court today on loud speaker over Det Keoghan’s mobile phone translated proceedings for the two.

Judge Alec Gabbett said: “I am remanding Mr Delin and Li Hu but we have nothing to show that they are those people they say they are.”

Judge Gabbett said: “They could be remanded in custody at length and that in itself would be unjust. It is going to cause a lengthy period in custody if we can’t establish who they are.”

He commented: “It would be very unusual to be seeking asylum from Japan.”

Judge Gabbett remanded the two to Limerick prison to appear before Ennis District Court on Wednesday for sentence. He said: “It might be difficult to impose sentence if we don’t know who they are.”