Foreigners with children born in Ireland are confused by this week's courtruling that refugees with Irish-born offspring do not have an automaticright to live here, reports Kitty Holland
Ackeim Amia is "very worried, very worried and confused" this weekend. "A clear picture is needed. That might make it more acceptable for people. When you are confused you are even more worried."
Ackeim came to Ireland from South Africa with his wife two years ago. They applied for asylum and have had their first interviews. In the meantime he has been working voluntarily at the Merchants Quay Project, an addiction counselling centre in Dublin.
"We want to integrate," he says. "We want to make use of ourselves to the community, but it is very difficult when you are not allowed to get a job." In the meantime he and his wife have had a son. Omos was born last month. They "did not know were going to have a baby" when they came to Ireland, but Ackeim feels people suspect they planned Omos "so we could get the document to stay here".
The fact that they are in their late 20s, have been married for just over three years and might be considered ready to have a child is not considered, he feels.
His reaction to the High Court's ruling on Monday (which asylum-seekers yesterday said they would appeal to the Supreme Court), that the non-national parents of Irish-born children cannot automatically reside here by virtue of their children's rights, is "mixed" he says, reflecting the feelings of many hundreds, if not thousands, of other immigrants.
"How are they going to apply this?" he asks of the ruling. "It has to be based on fairness. They cannot base a law for all people, just on people who come to Ireland late in pregnancy so they can stay here."
He suggests that immigrants who have applied for asylum and have been waiting for up to three years for a decision may feel a degree of animosity towards immigrants who arrive "late in pregnancy". But most importantly, amid his immediate fears for his family, he asks: "What about the babies?
"There is something so tight between a parent and their baby," he says, "and that is love. That is the most important thing for a baby. If we have to leave we will bring Omos, of course. But he is Irish and his life in South Africa would not be a good one. My wife's family do not accept me because I am Christian and they are Muslim."
Kadirat Balogun (19) from Nigeria and now based in Dundalk, is also awaiting a decision on her asylum application. She fled, she says, because her extended family were determined that she should be circumcised, a procedure that killed her older sister, Kemi, three years ago. She arrived in Ireland two years ago and had a baby girl last year.
She admits she and her Nigerian partner considered withdrawing from the asylum process when their daughter was born but a solicitor advised against it. When she heard of the court's decision she says she "couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, couldn't do anything. I was crying, crying. I am very worried. Everybody is worried. I ran for my life to Ireland and I am hoping, hoping we are allowed stay. I don't have anybody in Nigeria.
"I am very confused. If we go back to Nigeria my baby will be circumcised.What is going to happen?" she asks. No one, it seems, is able to tell her at the moment.
According to a barrister who has worked on immigration issues but did not want to be named, one of the few things that could be said with certainty of Mr Justice Smyth's ruling is that it regards the integrity of the immigration system, as seen by the Department of Justice, as of greater importance to the common good than the rights of Irish-born children to grow up here if their parents are non-national.
Confusion and fear arise in numerous areas, as demonstrated by the "hundreds" of calls the Irish Refugee Centre has received over the past week from parents of children born here.
The Czech and Nigerian parents at the centre of Monday's ruling had not been in Ireland an "appreciable length of time", Mr Justice Smyth said. They had been here less than a year. So what is an "appreciable length of time"?
Mr James Stapleton, policy officer with the IRC, wonders what will happen to Irish-born children whose parents leave them here when deported. Will the State take them into care?
"And Ireland has a tradition of evacuating Irish citizens from war-torn situations," says Mr Stapleton. "Will the State guarantee to do this for these Irish citizens if their parents' homeland is ravaged by war?"
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said he could not comment on these issues as an appeal was pending.Ackeim and his wife were contacted by the Department of Justice when Omos was born, telling them they had been granted residency. They still await a decision on their asylum application, however.
It is unlikely they will be deported before their asylum application is processed, but Ackeim is unsure. Of the questions he raises, he asks most pointedly: "When will the deportations begin? And where will they end?"