A Romanian woman who gave birth on a ferry to France at the weekend while being deported from Ireland had hours earlier attempted to evade detection by the Irish authorities, it has emerged.
The woman, her husband and son arrived in Rosslare port in Co Wexford last Friday morning on an Irish Ferries vessel, travelling on forged Czech papers.
They drove off the ferry in a French-registered car and were stopped at a checkpoint at the port, an immigration Garda source said yesterday. While an immigration official went into a building to carry out some checks, they drove off, the source said.
The Dumitru family were later stopped by gardaí in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, in an Irish-registered car.
A member of the Garda National Immigration Bureau travelled to Enniscorthy and it was established that a deportation order was outstanding against the family.
The couple and their son Alex (2) had sought asylum in Ireland in 2001, but had their refugee applications turned down. Alex was born in Ireland and therefore has Irish citizenship. With a deportation order in place, the family travelled to Britain, from where they were deported back to Romania about a year ago.
Immigration gardaí say the family flew from Bucharest to Paris last Thursday and drove to Cherbourg, boarding an Irish Ferries vessel sailing to Rosslare.
Refused leave to stay, gardaí placed them on the 7 p.m. sailing on the vessel The Normandy from Rosslare to Roscoff.
A spokesman for Irish Ferries said the family were allocated a cabin. At about midnight, Mrs Dumitru, who had reached the full term of her pregnancy, went into labour. There were no medical staff on board so an emergency call was made to other passengers, and an Irish nurse assisted in the delivery of a healthy baby girl.
The vessel was about 40 miles off Land's End and a doctor was airlifted on to the vessel by an RAF helicopter from Falmouth. He assessed the woman to be "in fine fettle", the spokesman said.
Chief Supt Martin Donnellan of the Garda National Immigration Bureau said immigration gardaí in Co Wexford did not notice that Mrs Dumitru was in need of medical attention, nor did she inform them. He said if gardaí had thought the woman was about to go into labour she would not have been put on the ferry.
Mr Peter O'Mahony of the Irish Refugee Council said it was ironic that a pregnant woman was not welcome here when Irish people were extending a warm welcome to Special Olympics athletes from around the world.
He said there were "issues" about the increasing numbers of people being refused leave to land in Ireland and a drop in the numbers claiming asylum.
Supt Donnellan insisted that anyone making an asylum application will have the claim processed. However, about half of all people who indicate upon arrival here that they are making a refugee claim do not subsequently pursue this application.
Four other adults, including two Lithuanians and a Polish national, were also refused leave to land on Saturday.