The Department of Foreign Affairs has launched an investigation into the detention of an Irish- born child, and her mother, at a Scottish detention centre 10 days ago.
The child, one-year-old Percieliz Ikolo, was detained with her Cameroon-born mother, Ms Mercy Ikolo, at the Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre, Strathaven, south Lanarkshire, on August 17th.
Ms Ikolo told investigative reporters at Scotland's Sunday Herald newspaper that she had gone to Scotland from the State on August 10th, but when she tried to return a week later, through Belfast, she was stopped by immigration officials at Larne and sent to Dungavel.
The reporters from the Sunday Herald went to Dungavel posing as visitors. Their findings featured in a story printed on Sunday, of which Ms Ikolo and her child were the main subject.
Ms Ikolo told the reporters that last Wednesday the Scottish authorities attempted to deport her to Uganda, despite insisting she was from Cameroon and that her child had been born in Dublin.
The pair were taken to Glasgow airport but when Ms Ikolo became hysterical, other passengers became distressed and Ms Ikolo and her child were taken back to Dungavel where they still remain.
Yesterday a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin said the department "is still trying to find out the facts of the case at this stage".
The department said it hoped to have complete facts by today. The spokeswoman added Ms Ikolo had approached neither the Irish consulate in Edinburgh nor the Irish embassy in London for assistance.
Ms Ikolo said one British immigration officer threatened that she would be separated from her child and deported to Uganda. "I'm devastated by what has happened, I just want to go back to Ireland. I have an Irish-born child," she said.
Sinn Féin TD, Mr Aengus Ó Snódaigh, has called the Ikolo detention an "appalling injustice". "It is clear that the Minister for Justice's deportation plans for the non-national parents of Irish children have the potential to create many more such traumas and worse, potentially putting the lives of those children and their parents at risk," he added.
