There has been a "substantial increase" in the number of deportation orders served on Nigerian families of Irish-born children in past weeks, the Coalition Against the Deportation of Irish Children has said.
Ms Eleanor Edmund, solicitor with Free Legal Advice Centres and a spokeswoman for the coalition, said there were reports from all their centres around the State "of a substantial increase in the number of these orders".
She said panic was "rife" among the affected families and urged them to get a solicitor. The coalition said it expected a deportation charter to leave for Nigeria on August 12th, or the days following. "That is the date that is being mentioned by everyone," said Ms Ronit Lentin, of the coalition.
Chartering large aircraft for mass deportations is increasingly regarded as more cost-effective than flying deportees to their country of origin on commercial aircraft. Concern has been expressed, however, that such deportations are usually carried out late at night and away from public view. Some 11,000 families of Irish-born children face deportation since the Supreme Court judgment in January 2003 that parents were not automatically entitled to residency on the basis of having an Irish-born child.
Given the fact that the courts have closed for August, Ms Lentin said it was "the worst possible time of year for these families to attempt to obtain legal representation, a situation already exacerbated by the fact that no legal aid is available".
It was of immense concern that despite assurances from the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, that the situation of the 11,000 families facing deportation would be reviewed after June's citizenship referendum, his Department was "pressing ahead with its deportation programme".
The Coalition Against the Deportation of Irish Children had written to Mr McDowell on July 8th seeking an urgent meeting to discuss the regularisation of these families, but to date had received no reply, said Ms Lentin.
In a press statement, it said it had received various reports of violations of procedural rights, such as immigration officials demanding the passports of Irish children in order to facilitate travel to Nigeria, despite having no powers to confiscate the passport of an Irish citizen.
Last week the Irish Refugee Council issued guidelines on deportation and called for deportation to be independently monitored to ensure no "unreasonable practices" were used.
It said care should be taken that unnecessary fear was not caused in the wider immigrant community by the arrival of "unreasonable numbers of gardaí at unsociable hours to the home of the deportee".
A spokesman for the Garda National Bureau of Investigation said he could not comment on whether a charter was planned for August 12th or the days around it, saying he would not want to "advertise" such plans.
The Department of Justice said all deportations were "carried out in line with legislation set out in the Immigration Act and the Refugee Act".
