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