Pupils and staff at a Dublin school protested outside the Dáil yesterday over the threatened deportation of a widow and her two young children to Kosovo.
Young classmates of Eni (5) and Eda (4) Sylaj, who are pupils at Castleknock Educate Together National School, waved placards urging public support for the family of failed asylum-seekers.
The two children and their mother, Ms Florinda Sylaj, have gone into hiding in an effort to avoid deportation.
Their supporters want the authorities to grant the family permission to remain in Ireland on compassionate grounds.
They have also complained that officials who attempted to deport the family on October 8th inappropriately spent an hour-and-a-half interviewing the children without any adults present.
A delegation of supporters met the Junior Minister with responsibility for children, Mr Brian Lenihan, yesterday to press their case.
One of the parents, Ms Eimear McDonnell, said her five-year-old son, Fionn, was very upset by the threat hanging over his classmate, Eni. "He talks about it every day and has written to the Minister to say please don't send them home where they will have to live on the street," she said.
Dublin Independent TD Mr Finian McGrath said he was putting in a formal question to the Minister urging him to stop the deportation of the family.
"I am also challenging the Minister to explain the actions of his officials on October 8th when they went into the family home to execute the deportation order."
Socialist Party TD Mr Joe Higgins has written to the Minister for Justice urging him to allow the family remain in Ireland.
Ms Sylaj and her children have been in Ireland for almost three years. Her husband was killed in the war in Kosovo and her supporters claim the family would be destitute if they were forced to return there. They say Ms Sylaj's Muslim in-laws in Kosovo have been violent towards her and never accepted her as a family member because she is a Catholic.