A South African woman who went missing at the weekend after failing to present herself to gardaí to be deported has turned up in London.
Ms Nteta Appiakorang left her two young daughters with friends in Castlemaine, Co Kerry, when she disappeared on Saturday.
Ms Appiakorang, a widow, had lived in a mobile home in Ballymun Barracks, Tralee, for two and a half years with her daughters Senita (11) and Yesunia (8).
Her asylum claim was unsuccessful and the family was served with a deportation order in June. Local people had been conducting a public campaign in recent weeks to allow the family to remain in Ireland on humanitarian grounds.
Ms Appiakorang had been working as a volunteer with the housing charity, Threshold, and was also on the management committee of a local drop-in centre for asylum-seekers.
Ms Cara Wallace-Costello, who is looking after Ms Appiakorang's daughters, said the widow left behind a note saying that she felt she had no choice but to leave. "She said the children were to mind each other and that God was looking after them," she added.
Ms Wallace-Costello said she would continue to care for the children, who are due to return to school today.
"They think their mum is very frightened and very desperate that she has run away," she said.
Officers from the headquarters of the Garda National Immigration Bureau in Dublin travelled to Castlemaine yesterday to assist local gardaí with their inquiries. Members of the Kerry mountain rescue team helped gardaí carry out searches of the rural area on Saturday.
However, a Garda source said Ms Appiakorang telephoned a friend in Ireland yesterday afternoon to say she was safe and well in London. The deportation order against Ms Appiakorang remains still in place, and she will not able to return here without risking arrest. The Appiakorangs had been due to report to immigration headquarters in Dublin on Saturday to take a flight to South Africa that evening.