The Department of Justice has begun issuing deportation orders against the immigrant parents of Irish-born children on foot of a Supreme Court judgment denying them residency rights.
Immigrant support groups and the Garda National Immigration Bureau say there have already been a small number of deportations of non-EU parents and their Irish-born children since last weekend. These are the first such deportations since the Supreme Court ruled in January that residency could not be claimed on the basis of a parent having an Irish-born child.
Before the ruling, immigrants who had entered the State as asylum-seekers could subsequently withdraw from the process and seek residency once their child was born here.
The ruling placed up to 11,000 immigrants in what the Immigrant Council of Ireland described as "legal limbo". In January, however, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, promised there would be no "mass deportations" of immigrant parents of Irish children and it would be possible to apply for leave to remain on humanitarian grounds.
Since July the Department issued 1,100 letters to non-EU parents. These tell the recipients of the Department's intention to deport them and gives them 15 days to explain why they should not be deported. They are not offered legal aid in drawing up their replies.
Since then those who have received the letters will have either responded by making an application to remain on humanitarian grounds, accepted repatriation or reapplied for asylum, said Ms Eleanor Edmund, of the Free Legal Aid Centres.
The Department had issued its response to those who have applied to remain on humanitarian grounds, said Ms Edmund, although as yet there is no indication what proportion will be told they are still being deported.
"I am dealing with one case at the moment where a Romanian family has been told to report to their local garda and that the intention is to deport them."
A Garda source in the immigration bureau said that although there had not been a large number of deportations on foot of the court ruling, "it will start happening in the next month or two. There's a lot of talk about it".
Ms Ronit Lentin, for the Coalition Against the Deportation of Irish Children, called on the Minister to halt the deportations. "We are also calling on him to immediately put in place fair and transparent procedures for residency applications which have at their core the need to safeguard the welfare of the Irish citizen child and respect for human rights, and to provide the right to free and adequate legal assistance to families of Irish citizen children who are currently facing deportations."
