Residency amnesty for 30,000 parents
The Department of Justice has confirmed that it has received over 15,500 applications to date from such families as part of a special once-off scheme.
It was announced by Justice Minister Michael McDowell last January after last year’s controversial referendum to limit the automatic right of children of foreign parents born in the Republic to reside here was passed.
In turn, it had followed a landmark Supreme Court ruling in early 2003 which declared the deportation of the Irish-born children of non-EU parents to be legal.
The closing date for the actual scheme is next Thursday, although it is understood documents will be accepted for a short period after this deadline due to administrative delays at Dublin’s Nigerian embassy.
However, official sources said they believed the vast number of potential families who could avail of the scheme had already submitted applications.
The main criterion for allowing applicants to remain living in Ireland is that they are willing to take up employment in the State.
The total number of applicants to date has already surpassed official estimates, which calculated that around 11,000 families would be eligible at the outset of the scheme.
A spokesperson for Mr McDowell said over 3,000 applicants had already been processed and granted permission to reside in the Republic.
It is believed that the number of people who had their applications rejected is relatively small.
Meanwhile, it remains unclear when Olukunle Elukanlo, the Nigerian student at the centre of last week’s deportation controversy, is due to return to Ireland.
Olukunle, who is staying with a priest in Lagos, Nigeria, claims he received no official contact over the weekend to arrange travel back to Dublin.
Mr McDowell admitted last week he was wrong to have signed the original deportation order against the Palmerstown College student who was due to sit his Leaving Cert this summer.
A spokesperson for Mr McDowell said instructions had been issued last Thursday to the Irish embassy in the Nigerian capital of Abuja to provide Olukunle with a new six-month student visa.
The embassy is not due to re-open until tomorrow morning but a justice spokesperson said contact had been made over the weekend with Olukunle, who reported being “safe and well”.
