'Devastating' - Anger as children attending Irish schools are deported to Nigeria

There has been an outpouring of anger and sadness over the deportation of five children from Ireland to Nigeria earlier this week. 

A deportation flight ordered by the Irish Government saw 35 people deported to Nigeria on the flight, including five children as part of family units. 

It has since emerged that some of these children were attending Irish schools with some people subsequently expressing dismay over the decision.

Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon went on RTE Radio One's Claire Byrne Show to express his own anger and frustration with Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan, who said he did not feel bad about the deportation.

Minister O'Callaghan said the flight, which cost €325,000 to charter, was value for money and ensures that Ireland's asylum system is not "meaningless."

“You have to look at the alternative to it. My department is spending €1.2 billion this year just in terms of accommodation for people who are seeking asylum.

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“If you have a deportation order, you’re required to leave the country. If you don’t do so voluntarily, it will be enforced," adding that such actions are "in the interest of people who are granted asylum, that persons who are rejected for asylum are forced to leave.

“Otherwise the asylum system becomes meaningless.” He did admit that deportation are not a "very pleasant part of the job." He was criticised by Gary Gannon on Claire Byrne's radio show. 

Gannon said: "I don't think any parent, any person of conscience could accept that this is how we would treat children in this State."

He added that he understands we have to have an effective system of migration, saying, "I accept that deportations may play a role in that. I do not accept for a second that children should feel the consequences for what has been a State failure for a broken migration system."

He added: "What happened in that school this week was devastating. Those children in that school, and others in similar situations, have been here for three and four years. They've been in our school systems, they've been learning our language, playing for the GAA teams.

"Consequences are felt there, not just on the deportation flight, but the other 20-odd children who were in their class, their families. That is an immensely painful situation. If the system is taking too long, that is the failure of the State, not a failure of those parents who have the right to pursue asylum." He called for compassion in the situation where applications have taken so long due to a "failure of the State."

Principal of St James’ Primary School in Dublin, Ciarán Cronin, spoke on Newstalk's Lunchtime Live and explained that two of the boys  on the deportation flight back to Nigeria had been in his school for three years.

He said: "In 2022 we enrolled 32 children that were living in the Red Cow Hotel. We’re on the Luas line, there’s no school based out there, so we thought it would be a good fit.

"They all joined our school on a Tuesday, and they were just the most fantastic addition to our school."

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He said the other 14 children from the Red Cow Hotel came to school on Wednesday "visibly distressed" after their friends had been taken from the hotel to Dublin Airport for the Thursday morning flight.

“They were so upset, shaking, there were tears; and when we were asking them what happened, they told us that two of the boys that are in second class and sixth class, they’d been taken away in a minivan with all their stuff to go to the airport to be deported," Mr Cronin told stand-in presenter Anna Daly.

“We were just flummoxed by it, how do you explain that to children? I’m not going to comment on deportation laws and how it should be done because obviously it’s a thing that is needed in any country,” he said.

“But the way children are treated should be given the utmost priority that things are done in a respectful; a trauma-informed way. This won’t leave children for the rest of their lives, that have witnessed that, that have seen that – they're going to be scarred for life from this.

Speaking of the sombre mood in the school since, he concluded: "It’s as if someone’s passed away."