Concern has been expressed at the increasing trend of deporting Irish-born prisoners from Britain when they finish their sentences, even though they may have spent most of their lives in that country.
The Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas' (ICPO) London office has received a regular stream of queries in recent months from Irish-born prisoners who received letters saying they were being considered for deportation on their release.
Where the ICPO might have received one or two of these queries a month, they were now getting several a week.
Some of the prisoners had been in Britain since they were infants and may have no links with Ireland, according to Fr Gerry McFlynn, director of the ICPO's London office.
"They might as well be deported to Borneo because who do they have back in Ireland?"
Ireland's "special relationship" with Britain would have prevented these deportations in the past, but now Irish-born prisoners were being treated like other ethnic groups, he said.
There are up to 700 Irish prisoners in British jails. Father McFlynn said he believed the increase in deportation orders was related to the clampdown on security in the wake of the September 11th attacks.
He said some prisoners were not taking the issue seriously and did not bother appealing the deportations. They reasoned that they could re-enter Britain after deportation because they had a partner and children there.
In one case, a deported prisoner was returned to jail in Britain after he defied the order and returned to Britain because he missed his partner and children.
In a few cases, second-generation Irish prisoners were mistakenly warned that they were being considered for deportation, even though they were British citizens.
This may have happened because they gave their nationality as "Irish" when they entered the prison system.
