McDowell has been forced to admit that he made a mistake in deporting Palmerstown student Olunkunle Eluhanle and is now bringing him back from Nigeria. He is giving him a six month visa to remain in Ireland to do his Leaving Cert. This is obviously due to the immense amount of effort put into this campaign by the Palmerstown Community School students and Residents against Racism, who together forced this issue.

They kept this issue alive in the media, which led to all of the oppostion parties, the Archbishop of Dublin, the Teachers Union of Ireland, Integrating Ireland and different schools around the country among others, all coming out against the deportation.

What needs to be done now is that all of those on that flight should be brought back. It is known that there were serious human rights abuses in the airport before the plane took off. It is known that some of those on the plane were unable to get in contact with their solicitors to get an injunction put in against their deportation. Also five children have been effectively orphaned in Ireland due to McDowell deporting their mothers. All of those on that plane should be brought back.

Also it must be ensured that Olunkunle Elunhanle is given permanent residency rights in Ireland - not just a six month visa.

Related Articles
Dail Protest Photo Essays / Video / Audio / Links to Related Stories
Original Indymedia Report on Deportations

Update: Comprehensive Court Report

Over the past few months there have been attempts by Shell personnel to enter the lands of residents in Rossport, north west Mayo, to mark out an upstream pipeline route for the Corrib Gas project.

Seven landowners – who own 50% of the land the pipeline is to go on - are refusing Shell access. Today some of them will be facing High Court injunction proceedings aimed at preventing them from going to those parts of their land which Shell wish to use.

The injunction process began on March 1st, the last occasion Shell tried to get on the lands, Liamy McNally of local radio station ‘Mid-West Radio’ was there and the following 15 minute extract is from his recording of the several hours long stand off.

Paul Gallagher and Geoff Phillips from Shell will be heard along with Rossport residents Willie Corduff, Monica Muller, Vincent McGrath and others. The report starts with Shell employee, Jim Nevin appealing to landowner Philip McGrath. Shell Vs Rossport

The report is copyrighted to Mid West Radio, thanks to Liamy for giving it to us, and to the lads in UL who changed the format.

For background see: Shell in Mayo: Summary of the Issues

Press Release From Residents Against Racism In Conjunction With Palmerstown Community School

Stop The Deportation Of Children

Demonstration 23/3/05 @ 12.30 Outside The Dáil

Residents Against Racism have called a demonstration for Wednesday 23rd March at 12.30 to protest at the governments continued policy of deporting children. Spokesperson Rosanna Flynn said: "Speaking in December the Justice Minister Michael McDowell stated that he recognised the moral force of allowing those asylum seekers who have children here in school for a lengthy period of time to stay. In March of this year his response has been to deport those very people. Many of these children and their families had integrated very well into their local communities, which is meant to be taken into account when casting judgement on their cases. A picture quickly emerges of a Justice Minister who says one thing and does the exact opposite. On the recent mass deportation there were several mothers who had been separated from their children, these children now remain in Ireland parentless. Also on the last deportation at least one of the passengers was sedated and a needle attached to them with a drip for the duration of the deportation. There was also a teenage boy due to sit his leaving cert deported leading to protests from his classmates in Palmerstown Community School. These cases are only the tip of the iceberg as there were many deported who we had no contact from before or after their deportations, many of these could have similar stories to tell".

Rosanna continued by saying "Many of the children who were deported could face the brutal practice of Female Genital Mutilation, a procedure which many young girls die from. Their education will be very different from that which they have been receiving for the last several years in Ireland, that is if they are lucky enough to get an education at all in Nigeria. The Irish government have a moral obligation to protect those who are most vulnerable, instead we have a system with no transparency or justice led by a Minster who lies. Residents Against Racism are calling on the government to stop deporting children, furthermore we are calling for an independent inquiry into the last deportation and for those people to be brought back"

Protests are also being held in Belfast, Derry, Liverpool, Glasgow, London and Amsterdam.
For further details call:

Rosanna Flynn 087 6662060
Mark Grehan 087 7974622
Jon Glackin 0774 327 5533

Original Indymedia Ireland Report On The Deportations

Joe Higgins TD Writes: Brazil is known as one of the countries with the greatest inequality in ownership of wealth on the face of the earth. It is one thing to read or hear this statistic. It is however quite a shocking experience to be confronted with the reality of what this means.

Mato Grosso do Sul is one of Brazil’s 26 states, situated in the southwest of the country. It is four times the size of the island of Ireland but has a population of only two million. It has millions of hectares of very fertile land, home at the moment to 24 million of the fattest cattle you will find. It has some of the richest ranchers on earth, some owning farms of up to 40,000 acres. Yet a report published in January 2005 by a state health organisation, FUNASA, found that children in some indigenous Indian villages were dying of malnutrition and related diseases.

Before going on to the World Social Forum in Porto Allegre this January 2005, I spent six days visiting remote Indian villages discussing with the inhabitants and seeing at first hand their conditions of life. My guides and interpreters were members of a small but very dedicated Indian support group, The Technical/ Juridical Educational Institute (ITJE). They work to assist the Indians reclaim their fundamental rights including advising the Indians on their land rights and assisting them in the process of trying to reclaim lands from which they or their ancestors were expelled.