THE IRISH Refugee Council has said it possesses "medical documental ion" indicating that two of the three Ukrainian children deported from Shannon after seeking asylum were "seriously ill apparently as a result of the Chernobyl nuclear accident".
The children were deported with their mothers and another eight year old girl on Saturday. This was after they first requested "ecological asylum" and then political asylum, saying the Ukrainian government could not guarantee proper medical care for the children.
One mother told an Irish Refugee Council worker that the 14 year old boy was suffering from a "cancer related illness as a result of Chernobyl".
"When you saw them your heart went out to them. It was obvious the boy had undergone extensive, surgery," said the worker. She said it appeared he would need considerable follow up specialist treatment.
The Irish Refugee Council said in a statement yesterday it was concerned that "the present law governing the proper examination of claims for political asylum appears not to have been adhered to in this instance.
"Procedures agreed between the Department of Justice and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which have been upheld by the Irish courts, confirm that the Minister for Justice has given an undertaking that where an application for refugee status has been made to an immigration officer on arrival in Ireland, an individual will not be refused entry or removed until he has been given an opportunity to present his case fully, his application has been properly examined and a decision reached on it".
The Council said the 1996 Refugee Act, recently signed into law, had placed Ireland "potentially in the forefront of progressive international law and practice on asylum". However, with a growing number of asylum applications in recent years, the deportation of the Ukrainians highlighted "the urgent need for the Act to be established".
The Department of Justice has said it expects appropriate structures, including an appeals procedure, early next year.
Ms Adi Roche, director of the Chernobyl Children's Project, which brings victims of the nuclear accident to Ireland for holidays and medical treatment, said the Government had to take a lead with "a special status for environmental refugees".
She said this was the first time anywhere in the world that environmental refugee status had been sought.