Approx 20 Nigerians Picked Up For Deportation in Blanch. Tanya Dube In Mountjoy. Protest Planned.

'What happened to compassionate leave to stay?' sez Wag 'Oh Yeah. McDowell. That's what happened'

UPDATE 11.25 PM 5 JUL:
Deportation plane leaving at 1 am
******** 21 years old - 4 months pregnant by Irish Guy - is the daughter of a woman who has been allowed leave to remain here on humanitarian grounds. She is being deported on the plane. She was allowed a single phonecall to her mother tonight by the Gardai. No room at the inn in Ireland anymore. There are several pregnant women of different nationalities locked up in Mountjoy Women's prison this eveining. Their immediate fate is unclear at the time of writing.
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INDYMEDIA.IE 4 JUL:
RAR (Residents Against Racism) have heard from various asylum seekers whom they are in contact with that Gardai were seen in and out of pubs and homes in Blanchardstown picking up approximately 20 Nigerian asylum seekers last night. Some women were also picked up last week in Galway. The men are now in Cloverhill Prison and the women (two at least) are in Mountjoy Women's Prison.

One of the women in Mountjoy is Tanya Dube who was resident for the last 4 years in Galway. This is the same Tanya Dube who after being locked up in the Women's prison in Mountjoy in July 2002 while heavily pregnant, was brought to hospital with a 'guard' of two ban gardai and two female prison officers. She was released after her recovery without any money or train or bus ticket at the time and, after returning to Galway with money provided out of the pocket of a RAR member, was later subsequently brought to Crumlin Hospital with her newborn and gravely ill baby who died after two days.

She is now separated from her husband who has already been deported and her teenage son who is still in Galway.

The RAR activist I spoke to believes a mass deportation to Nigeria is imminent. RAR are thus calling for an EMERGENCY protest at the GNIB Burgh Quay on Tuesday 5th July at 1.30pm.

Whatever happened to compassionate grounds to remain? This woman is the mother of an Irish Citizen who is dead.

The other woman that RAR knows about in Mountjoy is Olubukola Adekunle. She has been living in Dublin for four years and is subject to sudden deportation because she missed a "signing on day" in Burgh Quay a couple of weeks ago because she was at the doctors. The doctor neglected to fax the GNIB (as he is supposed to) that she was attending the doctor and thus she is now in jail awaiting immediate deportation for the crime of visiting a doctor.

Further Info contact: Rosanna Flynn : 087 6662060
Mark G. : 087 7974622


Background on Tanya Dube: http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2002/07/27/story135375117.asp