Ukrainian families deported, asylum request refused

TWO Ukrainian women and their three children, who they claimed were victims of the Chernobyl flu clear explosion, have been deported…

TWO Ukrainian women and their three children, who they claimed were victims of the Chernobyl flu clear explosion, have been deported following refusal of their request for asylum in Ireland.

The group arrived at Shannon last Thursday on a flight from Cuba to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. According to Department of Justice sources, they first asked for "ecological asylum" saving that the Ukraine was "ecologically polluted" following the Chernobyl disaster.

The women said they had been in Cuba for two years where their children had been receiving medical treatment. They were told by immigration officials they would need visas to enter Ireland, and advised to continue their journey to Kiev, where they could apply to come to Ireland "in the proper way".

They then requested political asylum, according to sources, on the grounds that the Ukrainian government could not guarantee proper medical care for the children, aged 14, eight and seven. The group was put in hostel accommodation in Ennis, Co Clare, for two nights. On Saturday evening, they were put on a flight to Kiev.

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The department sources yesterday quoted the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which defines a refugee as "a person who has a well founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion".

One source said. "They were clearly not within the scope of the 1951 Convention so they were not allowed to land as refugees."

The Irish Refugee Council said yesterday that they had been asked to provide an interpreter for an interview the two women were due to have with immigration officials on Friday evening. However, they were told later the interpreter would not be needed until Monday. On Monday, they were told the group had been deported.

On Saturday, one of the mothers told a Refugee Council worker that her 14 year old son was suffering from a "cancer related illness as a result of Chernobyl", a Refugee Council spokeswoman told The Irish Times last night. A few hours before they were deported, a local doctor was called in to give him injections.