Some 300 immigrant parents of Irish citizen children hoping to avoid deportation attended a crowded information meeting in Dublin yesterday.There was some confusion when half of the crowd was obliged to wait outside Liberty Hall for an hour, due to an unexpectedly high turnout.
The organisers were forced to hold two successive public information sessions for up to 150 people each, instead of one meeting as originally planned, due to the capacity of the hall reserved.
The people who were not admitted to the first session had to queue outside the building, prompting some angry exchanges with staff, who had safety concerns relating to the size of the crowd.
The parents, mostly mothers, travelled from around the State to attend the meeting organised by the recently-formed Coalition Against Deportations of Irish Children.
They are among some 11,000 people who have recently had their applications for residency in Ireland as parents of citizen children revoked by the authorities. The practice of granting residency to such applicants ceased following a landmark Supreme Court ruling last January.
The Department of Justice has started issuing letters to hundreds of such parents, informing them that they face deportation and advising them that they have 15 days to make fresh applications for temporary leave to remain in the State on humanitarian grounds.
Immigrant support groups claim this move has caused distress and confusion among immigrants, who are not entitled to State-funded legal advice in making their fresh applications.
A panel of experts and lobbyists gave information to the crowd gathered yesterday in a stuffy basement hall. The speakers struggled to be heard above the cries and chatter of dozens of young infants.
Ms Ronit Lentin from Trinity College Dublin, who chaired the meeting, told parents: "We are committed to supporting you in your plight and complete and utter confusion but also in a political campaign on your behalf."
Legal experts from the Refugee Council, the Immigrant of Ireland and the Free Legal Advice Centres organisation (FLAC) gave general advice on what factors to include in future applications for leave to remain in the State on humanitarian grounds.
Ms Eleanor Redmond, a solicitor from FLAC, told people to seek legal advice from their local Legal Aid Board-funded law centres, although it was their policy to refuse this. She said FLAC believed the State was obliged to provide this service and wants to bring a test case to establish the entitlement.
Anxious parents then asked questions about their legal positions and called for public protest to force the authorities to change their policy in the area.
One African woman from Galway said she had been unable to get State-funded legal support for her application. "I went to different lawyers, and they turned me down," she said. "I had to write the letter myself and I sent it to the Minister, so what do I do?"
An Albanian mother of two-year-old twins who need regular medical care broke down as she told The Irish Times of her fears about being returned to her impoverished country.