The death in childbirth at the weekend of a recently arrived Nigerian asylum-seeker will undoubtedly re-ignite the debate about the allure of Ireland's unique citizenship laws. Nuala Haughey takes a look at this country's legislation
The tragedy comes amid concerns that increasing numbers of asylum-seekers are seeking to give birth in Ireland in order to apply for residency on the grounds that they are the parents of children who are Irish citizens.
Residency is generally granted to such parents, regardless of whether their claim for asylum is successful or not. In many cases people who succeed in claiming residency on the basis of being parents of an Irish born child subsequently drop their asylum claim.
The almost automatic granting of residency to parents of Irish-born children will be challenged by the State in two cases in the High Court next month. Minister of State, Mr Willie O'Dea, said last week the Government is also "actively considering" a constitutional referendum to fill the current "loophole in the law" which grants Irish citizenship to people born on the island. However, a referendum on this issue is not envisaged during the remaining term in office of the current government.
Ireland is unique in Europe as the only country that awards citizenship by birth and generally grants the parents of these citizens residency. The UNHCR's representative in Ireland yesterday called for a "constructive debate" on the issue, which she said should not be confused with the general issue of asylum for people fleeing persecution.
Refugee lobby groups have also warned that if the debate is not measured it could lead to the scapegoating of all asylum-seekers in this particularly sensitive pre-election period. A Government advisory body which monitors racist incidents says it received four reports in the past three months from pregnant black women who said they had been verbally abused in public.
"People have been shouting at them: 'you are just here to get citizenship'," says Mr Philip Watt from the advisory body, the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism.
In one reported incident, a black woman said she was badly treated by reception staff at a Dublin maternity hospital who wrongly assumed she was an asylum-seeker.
Several Dublin maternity hospitals have drawn attention to an increase in the numbers of asylum seekers arriving in late pregnancy, amid concerns about stretched resources and the health risks to the women themselves.
That resources throughout the health services are already stretched and that many hospitals could not operate without migrant labour are facts which easily get lost in the heat of the debate.
Dublin maternity hospitals collect data on births to non-nationals but do not record whether the mothers are here as migrant workers, asylum-seekers or refugees. About one in five births in Dublin's Rotunda Hospital last year were to non-nationals. In the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street about one in ten babies born last year were to non-national parents. Last year 2,474 asylum-seekers were granted leave to remain in Ireland on the basis that they were the parents of Irish-born children. This is up from 909 in 2000 and 1,227 in 1999.
The authorities are determined to curtail this trend, possibly in the High Court next month.
In cases involving parents have not lived in the State for an "appreciable length of time," it will probably be argued that they are not entitled to remain in the state to care for their children.