Girls go back to school hoping for mother’s return

LIKE thousands of youngsters across the country, two young girls in Kerry are getting ready to start a new school year.

But unlike many others, Senita and Yesunia Appiakorang will not be wished well and waved off by their mother.

Nteta Appiakorang is still missing, a year after she disappeared without trace rather than allowing herself and two children be forcibly deported back to South Africa.

Her daughters, 12-year-old Senita and Yesunia, 9, both speaking in accents much more Kerry than South African, are thriving under the care of family friends who now officially act as their foster parents.

But there’s not a day the name of their 39-year-old mother Nteta is not mentioned said Cara Wallace-Costello who has cared for them since the 39-year-old South African went missing on the eve of the planned deportation of the family.

The two still live in legal limbo having no papers guaranteeing them continued residency in Ireland, particularly when they turn 18.

There has been no word from the authorities as to whether their stay in Ireland will be made permanent.

Letters have been sent to the Ministers for Justice and Children asking for them to be allowed to remain in Ireland on humanitarian grounds.

Senita is due to start in Milltown Secondary School in September and her younger sister will remain in Moyderwell National in Tralee.

“Nothing has been heard of Teta and there are no developments. But the girls are doing marvellous considering,” said Ms Wallace-Costello, who lives with her husband Eamon six miles outside Tralee.

“They are getting ready to go back to school.”

“We talk about Teta every day. The approach we take is how she would do things and then do them that way.

“There’s always the hope that the three of them will be reunited and be able to stay in Ireland together.”

Nteta disappeared in dramatic fashion after being told she and her children were to be deported back to South Africa, two-and-a-half years after they made their home in Tralee.

The mother-of-two worked as a volunteer in a charity shop, helped out in the refugee centre, was involved in the local choir and also was a member of a Samba band.

Her threatened deportation outraged many in the Kerry town and led to a 1,000-name petition being delivered to the Minister of Justice Michael McDowell.

Fleeing tribal and political turmoil that led to the death of her husband and son, not state persecution, her refugee claim was denied.

Supporters argued she fulfilled perfectly the criteria for being given leave to remain on humanitarian grounds, the gift of the minister and one that he has handed to just 19 people this year.

Even now, Ms Wallace-Costello said it is not too late for the State to welcome Nteta.

While there has been no word from her, the Tralee woman believes information will filter through to the foreign country she is living in.

Supporters want the case reviewed to add stability to the children’s lives as they grow older and to allow her to be re-united with them.

“It’s not natural that the children be separated from their mother for a lifetime, it’s incomprehensible a full year has gone by,” said Ms Wallace Costello.

Yesunia, as she prepared for her first Holy Communion earlier this year, asked: “Will mum be there?”

She wasn’t, but the two girls live in hope that they will one day be re-united with their mother.