Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I am raising an extremely important issue this evening. The deportation of a 19 year old youth to Nigeria raises many other issues, such as the Government's immigration policy, which deserves to be debated in the House at an early opportunity.

We witnessed last week the spectacle of men, women and children, who had been taken by the Garda while engaged in one area of activity in their lives, arriving at the airport to be deported. Those who were deported were in school uniforms or on their way to work, while others had been asked to turn up at the immigration bureau. They were taken to the airport after being given a brief period of time to collect some clothes. Mobile telephones were taken from those being deported in some cases, so that they could not contact friends, relatives or lawyers. A couple of people who were able to contact lawyers were not deported because they secured a review of the circumstances of their deportation.

Last week's deportations took place on the eve of St. Patrick's Day, when the Minister, Deputy McDowell, and some of his colleagues were out of the country commemorating the far-flung diaspora of Irish people who went abroad, legally and illegally, to find a better life and to escape persecution. It is a cruel irony that the deportations took place just as those celebrations were about to begin.

The thrust of my contribution will relate to the cases of unaccompanied minors who have come to this country. Many of them, including the young man in question, are over the age of 18 when they sit the leaving certificate because of their late entry into the education system. Therefore, they come within the terms of reference of the deportation regulations. Many people are eligible for deportation as they prepare to sit the leaving certificate, or even the junior certificate, and are being deported on that basis. I am sure the Minister understands the significant benefits, in terms of their future, of giving such people the opportunity to acquire some qualification from the Irish education system.

None of the humanitarian reasons for deciding not to deport a young person, including that person's friends and other roots in the community, has been taken into consideration. That is contrary to the spirit of the Geneva Convention and the international laws relating to children. If it is still part of this country's ethos to be Christian and humane, the least we should do is to allow young people who have come to Ireland in difficult circumstances to stay here until they have finished their schooling. The Minister should suspend any future deportations of this nature. He should provide for a separate assessment when he considers ordering the deportation of a young person on the grounds I have mentioned. In such an assessment, he should consider the degree to which the person has been integrated into Irish society through the education system.

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