A deputy school principal has alleged that two gardaí strode into a school and aggressively and threateningly asked questions about a missing Nigerian student.
Noel Casey, deputy principal of Our Lady's Bower School in Athlone, said the events took place 10 days ago when one of his students, aged 18, went missing after her mother was deported to Lagos leaving some of her children behind. Another mother from the area was also deported, leaving children behind.
There are reportedly six Nigerian children aged from eight to 18 still in hiding in the midlands, 10 days after the deportations.
Mr Casey said the two gardaí came to the school looking for the student.
"At 4 o'clock I looked up and I saw this woman, blond woman, very well dressed, striding into the school, into the central area and coming behind her was a female garda in uniform with the child's mother, holding a grip on the mother who was in a very distressed state," he said.
"As I approached the office area, I could hear the person I presumed to be a non-uniformed officer shouting very loudly," Mr Casey said.
She was looking for the girl, calling her name in a loud, aggressive way. He told her he had sent the student home. When he told her that, "she barked at me 'Why, why did you send her home?'
"I was then sort of motioned in a very aggressive way away from everybody else by this woman."
He told the garda he had received no direction. She looked for other information, and he asked another Nigerian student if she could tell the garda where the missing student was, and the garda "again went for her in a very aggressive way".
"What's your name, she said to her, and it was a very threatening request, order, not request," Mr Casey said. The student told her she did not know and with that the woman turned on her heel and went out the door and was gone.
Earlier, he said the Nigerian girl had come into his office and told him that gardaí were at her family home. Everybody was very afraid, and he decided the best thing was for her to go home. He was concerned gardaí would come to the school and attempt to take her.
The girl went to get her brother. "They headed off to wherever they are in this point in time. I don't actually know. I would really worry about those children," he said.
Mr Casey said there was a large international community in the school and they felt very threatened. The general student body was shocked to say the least. He was surprised gardaí came to the school in that way.
He had written letters to the Garda superintendent, the Garda Complaints Board, the Garda National Immigration bureau, the Ministers for Justice and Education and the three TDs for Westmeath.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said complaints regarding the conduct of gardaí were a matter for the Commissioner or the Garda Complaints Board, rather than the department or the Minister for Justice.