The Garda National Immigration Bureau is looking for an Irish-born baby whose mother was deported to Nigeria yesterday, its chief has said.
Det Chief Supt Derek Byrne said the baby's mother, one of 25 Nigerians deported on a chartered aircraft, had refused to give bureau officers information about the baby's whereabouts when she reported for deportation on Wednesday.
It is understood the baby girl is less than a year old and, according to Det Chief Supt Byrne, is thought to be with her father, whose nationality is not known.
"The mother made contact - with the father we think - told him not to get in contact with us, to disappear and then she deleted his number from her phone." He would not speculate on whether it was an attempt to evade deportation herself.
"We will seek to locate the child and then, if necessary, the health board will get involved," he said. The bureau hoped to arrange for the baby to be repatriated with her mother, he added.
One of those deported claimed yesterday that the mother was with the baby earlier. Mr Jide Onikoyi (20), who arrived in Ireland three years ago as an unaccompanied minor, spoke to The Irish Times from Lagos yesterday where he had just arrived in the deportation charter.
"That woman was extremely upset. She had her child with her, who was about nine months old, I think. There was some problem because she got separated from her baby . . . the woman was fighting with them and didn't want to go. She was crying a lot on the flight."
However Det Chief Supt Byrne was emphatic that the baby was not with her mother and she had frustrated the officers' efforts to find her. A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said it was a matter for the parents of a child who was not liable to be deported to decide what was best for that child.
"If parents acting in good faith leave their children in the care and custody of another appropriate person, the State will not interfere with those arrangements so long as the decision does not amount to a failure in the duty towards their child."
The aircraft left Dublin shortly after midnight on Wednesday. Forty bureau officers accompanied the deportees, as well as a doctor and a nurse. A meal was served and a film was screened during the 6½ hour flight.
Addressing criticisms about the late-night timing of these deportations, Det Chief Supt Byrne said: "That is nothing to do with us." He said there were issues about getting slots at the airport and the Nigerian authorities demanded deportees arrive early in the morning due to the "high volume" of administration necessary upon arrival.
The Coalition Against the Deportation of Irish Children has condemned yesterday deportations. Its spokeswoman, Ms Ronit Lentin, expressed the group's concern that a woman was deported without her child. "This is an indefensible policy which must be halted immediately," she said.
Ms Aisling Reidy, director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, said: "In light of the recent constitutional amendment, the Minister has no public interest argument to justify the deportation of these children. This has now become simply a senseless and inhumane policy inflicted on families who had lawfully applied for residency as far back as 2001.
"There appears to be total abandonment of any pretence to be upholding the Constitutional rights of the children," she added.
The Green Party spokesman on justice, Mr Ciarán Cuffe TD, has called on the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, to clarify whether children born before the 2003 Supreme Court judgment were among the three on the flight to Nigeria.
He called on him to allow the non-national parents of Irish children born before the Supreme Court decision to be allowed to remain. "This is a limited group of families and we believe it is in their best interest to allow them to stay."
