Anisimovas may be deported

A Russian woman and her daughter at the centre of a Supreme Court battle to stay in Ireland are facing deportation from today.

Mrs Olga Anisimova and her daughter, Elena, have been told by the Department of Justice they must leave the State voluntarily by today or be forcibly deported.

Mrs Anisimova came to Ireland to seek refugee status in February 1996, but the Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that she should make her asylum application in the UK.

The Department issued the notice in a letter received by Mrs Anisimova on Monday. This gave her five days to leave, effective from the date of postage, which was last Friday. The order takes effect from today, which is International Human Rights Day.

Her solicitor, who wrote last week to the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, appealing for her to be allowed stay on humanitarian grounds, said last night he had yet to receive a reply.

Elena Anisimova, aged 11, has been attending schools in Dublin for almost two years.

A Department spokesman said Mrs Anisimova's solicitor had made an appeal and this was being considered.

The Labour TD, Mr Pat Upton, appealed to the Minister to show compassion and allow the family to stay until after Christmas.

Mr O'Donoghue told the Dail last week that 23 other people are facing deportation in similar circumstances.

Deportations are normally carried out by gardai, who accompany the deportee to the nearest port. The person is usually provided with the train fare for travel to the nearest British city, and with addresses of UK immigration authorities.

Meanwhile two leading Catholic organisations have accused politicians of allowing a rise in racism in the State, associated with the arrival of asylum-seekers, to go unchallenged.

Trocaire and the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace said Mr O'Donoghue should take the lead by showing "zero tolerance" of racism and xenophobia.

Most asylum-seekers should be allowed to work and a task force should be established to help refugees integrate into the community, the two bodies say in a new policy document.

They also call for the immediate implementation of the 1996 Refugee Act, ratification of the UN convention on the elimination of racial discrimination and the provision of an "adequate" legal aid scheme for asylum-seekers.

Speaking at the launch the president of the ICJP, Bishop Laurence Ryan, said: "Our denial of the rights of asylum-seekers and refugees damages us all as it is a denial of our common humanity. It is also a denial of the Christmas spirit."

The chairman of Trocaire, Bishop John Kirby, said the fact that the Refugee Act was "dead in the water" was a "poor reflection on our democratic practice."

The document, Refugees and Asylum-seekers: A Challenge to Solidarity, suggests that the diversification of Irish society is an "irreversible" process. It contrasts the treatment of immigrants here with the "totally free" access to other countries Irish emigrants have enjoyed for many centuries.