Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has said he "won't be blackmailed" into bringing back mothers who left their children behind them when they were deported.
Two Athlone-based mothers, Elizabeth Odunsi and Iyabo Nwanze, were deported to Lagos on March 14th. They each brought one of their children with them, but others were left behind. Ms Nwanze's son, Emmanuel (8), and Ms Odunsi's children, Mabajoye (17), Oluwaseun (14) and Olwasegun (11), are now all in hiding in the midlands.
Speaking in Tullamore, where he signed the contract for a new €14 million courthouse, Mr McDowell said: "I won't be blackmailed by anybody into a situation where, by leaving children here or by spiriting them away, that the adults in the family can feel that they are somehow entitled to resist deportation on that ground.
"The Government won't be worn down on this process by families deliberately choosing to divide in two, and then creating an emotional argument based on their own decision not to go as a family when they have come as a family."
"Arbitrary sentimentality" could not run the immigration system, he said. "The decisions can't be judged on the basis of who has the biggest petition, or who has the nicest photograph, or who has the best smile, or who is the most talented athletically or educationally - the decisions have to be made fairly and squarely on objective criteria," he said.