A Co Mayo school is assisting efforts to revoke a decision by the Department of Justice to deport a five-year-old pupil with special needs.
Onalenna, known as Ona, came to Ireland from South Africa with his aunt, who is his guardian, in early 2024. They live in direct provision accommodation and he attends a national school in Ballina.
Ona’s principal described him as “the most vulnerable child in the school”.
“The things that he’s struggling with day to day are his speech and his social life, and anger issues. He likes routines,” said Ona’s guardian, who did not wish to be named and asked that the boy be identified by his first name only.
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She said her younger sister died in 2020, a few weeks after giving birth to Ona. She was HIV-positive and may have had Covid-19 at the time of her death. Ona’s father was never known to him and his aunt has acted as his guardian since.
In February, she and Ona were served with deportation orders that come into effect next Wednesday. They have submitted Form 3 (11) applications seeking to revoke the orders, which are supplied by individuals who have new circumstances or information to report in support of their asylum application.
Ona’s aunt wrote that the boy’s circumstances have changed greatly as “very little was known about the nature and extent” of his special needs when she initially applied for international protection.
A HSE report completed earlier this month described Ona as having “severely delayed speech and language difficulties” and that he is on a waiting list for a neurodevelopmental assessment.
“The school is helping him because they’re being patient with him,” Ona’s aunt said. “Ninety per cent of the time, he’s happy there. I think he’s feeling at home.”
Before coming to Ireland, Ona’s aunt said she was working as a real estate agent in Johannesburg. She said she facilitated the sale of a property, after which it became apparent that the building was a target for “hijackers” in the area.
South Africa has a history of criminal syndicates “hijacking” buildings that are often neglected or dilapidated, and renting them out illegally. Ona’s aunt said a tenant in the building she sold warned her of its connections to hijackers, but she dismissed the claim as a tactic to discourage her from selling the property.
Shortly after the sale process began, the woman said she woke at midnight to a phone call from a man who introduced himself as a hijacker connected to the property. She said he made threats to her and Ona’s lives. She reported the incident to local police and her workplace, with her employer advising that they leave the country.
The woman previously lived in Ireland from 2003 to 2012, but returned to South Africa when her father died. She said she was granted permission to remain in the country after several years.
She said she and Ona came to Ireland via Turkey and that after three weeks in accommodation in Drogheda, they were relocated to Ballina.
Ona’s school and guardian share a concern that returning to South Africa would spell the end of essential special needs assistance for him. He has received one-to-one support at school and it has been recommended that he be placed in a class for children with speech and language difficulties.
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“Those classes don’t exist in South Africa,” says Pat Cunnane, principal of Ona’s school. “Straight away, that isn’t open to him. The assessment process may be slow here, but not anything like the slowness in South Africa.
“The chances of him being able to go and get back into the assessment process in South Africa are very limited.”
A study by Raymond Chirowamhangu, published in the National Library of Medicine in 2024, estimated that as many as 70 per cent of children with disabilities in South Africa are not attending school. It suggested there was poor policy implementation to ensure inclusivity for learners with disabilities in the country.
The South African department of basic education has disputed previous figures regarding the number of children with disabilities excluded from schools. Researchers suggested that between 500,000 and 600,000 children with special needs were not in formal education in South Africa.
“We have an opportunity here to show some consideration for his humanitarian situation, which has only emerged really since he’s come to Ireland,” said Cunnane.
He and the manager of a Montessori that Ona attended before entering national school, contributed supporting statements to his Form 3 (11) application to revoke the deportation order.
The Department of Justice said it cannot comment on individual cases, but that it “takes all necessary steps to manage the international protection process efficiently and effectively, while ensuring the integrity of those processes is maintained at all times”.
“People can apply for international protection in Ireland if they have come to escape persecution in their own country or if they cannot return to their country because they have a well-founded fear for their safety,” a spokesperson added.
A deportation order is made “following a full assessment of a person’s individual circumstances” and only after a fair and comprehensive examination of all the facts and circumstances of the individual case has been conducted, they said.
“Any such decision will be in line with immigration legislation and will include a consideration of any relevant Constitutional rights and rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Relevant domestic case law and ECHR case law provide guidance in how such laws should be interpreted and form part of such considerations.”
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