The Galway One World Centre has appealed to the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, to lift a deportation order on a Polish woman who founded the Roma Support Network in Ireland.
Members of the centre have threatened to go on hunger strike if Ms Anita Dolinska and her two-year-old son, Emiliano, are forced to leave. Ms Dolinska is on the centre's management committee and has been involved in voluntary work with other asylum-seekers in Galway. She has also worked voluntarily as an interpreter during legal hearings involving refugees, the centre says.
Last month, Ms Dolinska was photographed with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform in Dublin, as one of several Roma Support Network members attending the publication of a report on education with prejudice. A letter from Mr O'Donoghue's office a week later stated that he proposed to make a deportation order for her and her son.
Ms Dolinska's claim for asylum was refused on grounds that the violence she suffered was not seen as sufficient to be classed as persecution. She was given 15 working days to make further representations for humanitarian leave to remain in Ireland.
The Department of Justice said yesterday it did not comment on individual cases.
Ms Dolinska has been in Ireland since January 2000, having fled Poland after a series of beatings and discriminatory treatment.
Ms Frances Joyce of the Galway One World Centre said Ms Dolinska required continuing medical treatment. Her son is prone to bronchial problems.
If Ms Dolinska has to return home, she fears she will be forced into an arranged marriage and might lose her son. Under such an arrangement, her husband would not be required to make any commitment to him, and other family members would bring him up, Ms Joyce says. Since arriving in Ireland she has learned to speak, read and write English and is on the committee of the Friendship Club for immigrants, run by the Methodist-Presbyterian Church in Galway.
