Plans to deport up to 700 parents of Irish-born children

A NEWLY-FORMED anti-deportation coalition yesterday launched a campaign against Government plans to deport up to 700 parents of Irish-born children.

The group composed of numerous refugee, human rights, legal NGOs and community action groups was formed after 700 non-EU immigrant parents of Irish citizen children received letters in the last three weeks informing them they face deportation following a landmark Supreme Court decision in January.

The Department of Justice is in the process of voiding 11,000 outstanding residency applications from immigrant parents made on the basis they had become parents of Irish children. This follows January's ruling which rejected the automatic right of non-EU immigrants to remain here simply if they had an Irish child.