The principal of a Co Kerry national school has criticised deportation procedures in which a seven-year-old boy was taken from a classroom to be deported a fortnight ago.
It has also emerged that a three-year-old boy was taken from a community playgroup in the county to be deported on the same day.
The principal of the Presentation School in Tralee, Patrick Sayers, said the school got no prior warning the seven-year-old was to be taken. It was very upsetting for the staff and the pupils when the Garda immigration official turned up with the child's mother, he said.
"School is supposed to be a safe haven for children," Mr Sayers said. If such things had to be done they should be carried out in a more sensitive manner, he added.
Meanwhile, it emerged that a three-year-old boy, also from Nigeria, and who was attending the Muckross Community School in Killarney, was taken in full view of other children when immigration officials arrived with the child's mother.
Both sets of families were deported to Lagos on March 14th.