Hanafin raises issue of school deportee ‘snatch squads’ with McDowell

EDUCATION Minister Mary Hanafin has raised concerns with Justice Minister Michael McDowell about children being taken from schools by gardaí to be deported.

She raised the issue after a number of recent incidents in which gardaí entered schools with deportation orders for immigrant students, including seizing a three-year-old boy from a crèche in Kerry.

The practice was criticised by teacher unions at their annual conferences last month, with calls for schools to be treated as sacredly as churches.