Student deportations condemned

Teachers at the TUI congress yesterday demanded an end to the deportation of students until immigration procedures were "completely overhauled".

TUI president Paddy Healy paid tribute to the teachers and students of Palmerstown Community School who lobbied for the return of deported student Olukunle Elukanlo.

He is due back in Ireland this morning after Minister for Justice Michael McDowell reversed the deportation order.

"You are the real Ireland," Mr Healy said, referring to the Palmerstown teachers. "You are a credit to our union and you are a credit to our country."

Delegates passed an emergency motion seeking the revision of the deportation regulations on the final day of the congress in Dublin.

The motion condemned "the out-of-hand way children, women and men have been deported from our country. We particularly deplore the way in which gardaí entered classrooms, and the subsequent disruption to our pupils".

Dublin delegate Michael Carr said there had been unprecedented scenes involving gardaí and teachers in recent weeks, with a three-year-old removed from a creche and a seven-year-old taken from a school.

"How are teachers supposed to operate in these insane conditions where the sanctity of the classroom is being violated?" he asked. The immigration procedures were "a shambles" he said and attaining immigrant status was a matter of chance, depending on who heard the application.

Another Dublin delegate, Martin Hanrahan, said there would have been uproar if a patient was removed from a hospital and put on a plane as it was seen as "a special place".

But the classroom was also a special place and it deserved protection from violation, he said. If teachers did not condemn the recent incidents, it would be understood that they supported them, Mr Hanrahan said.

Delegates also expressed concern about the plight of four African students who have been refused entry to France for a school trip next Monday. The mature international business students from Nigeria and Kenya were to travel to Paris as part of a 20-strong student group from Pearse College, in Crumlin, Dublin. They had already paid €385 each to buy their tickets and book their accommodation when the French embassy rejected their short-stay visa applications.

All four women have residency here and yesterday they stressed had no plans to stay in Paris. They had children, partners or exams to return to.

Nike Durojaiye from Nigeria said she had travelled to Germany last year with the college and had had no difficulties.

The French embassy gave no reason for the rejection of the application. College principal Marie Oxx failed to get more information from the embassy. She then appealed the decision but this was also rejected.

The French embassy said it had no comment to make when asked about the incident yesterday.