Sir, - One shudders when Aine Ni Chonaill speaks of "shuffling people" (The Irish Times, October 26th). Only a generation ago people were "shuffled" out of their warm beds, told to pack one bag and sent by cattle trains to their deaths in extermination camps. But does "shuffling people" not also mean arresting people who have lived here nearly five years in their west Dublin home at dawn and telling them to pack one bag each because they are going to be deported that afternoon (The Irish Times, November 2nd)?
I met Aurel and Sylvia Costina recently when they came with her visiting parents to bring me news from my mother's school friend in Vatra Dornei, northern Romania. The news of their impending deportation was therefore extremely shocking to me. I appeal to the Minister for Justice and the Taoiseach to review the deportation sympathetically and allow them and their children to resume their lives and to work and study in this country. I also appeal to the Government and to Irish society to re-think the deportation policy. We own it to our consciences and we can afford it. - Yours, etc., Ronit Lentin,
Ethnic and Racial Studies,
Trinity College,
Dublin 2.