Baby girl held 'behind barbed wire' returns home

AN Irish-born baby girl, held for nearly a month in a detention centre in Britain, is due back in Ireland today following a deal between the authorities here and in Scotland. Percieliz Ikolo has been staying with a member of the Scottish parliament since she and her mother Mercy were released on bail from the controversial detention centre at Dungavel outside Glasgow.

But last week Ms Ikolo, who fled her native Cameroon where she claims to have been subjected to political violence, was told she and 18-month-old Percieliz will be returned to Ireland. They are due to be placed on an early morning flight from Glasgow to Dublin.

"It's OK to be going back to Ireland but I just wish they had let us back earlier. There would have been a lot less problems if they had let me go back in the first place," said Percieliz's 32-year-old mother, speaking from Rosie Kane's home in Glasgow.

The pair were stopped as they returned to Dublin from a visit to friends in Scotland.

When detained, Ms Ikolo argued that she just wanted to get back to Dublin, to her friends and home. She showed the immigration officials her daughter's Irish birth certificate.

Percieliz, an Irish citizen born in Dublin's Rotunda Hospital in July 2002, was detained in conditions that would not be allowed in Ireland, behind barbed wire in a closed centre that is the subject of human rights challenges.

They were held for nearly a month at Dungavel detention centre. At one point, Mercy said, she and her daughter were taken to the airport and told they were being placed on a Uganda-bound plane. Mercy is from Cameroon in west Africa.

They were released on bail following a public outcry but still faced an uncertain future. Irish consular officials, alerted by reports of the case in the Irish Examiner, began making inquiries shortly before their release.

Legal experts claimed the case represented a clear challenge to the State's obligations to Irish-born children following last year's Supreme Court judgement on the rights of parents. The court ruled parents of Irish citizens do not have automatic residency rights.

Mercy said yesterday she has no idea what is going to happen to her and Percieliz when they return to Ireland. She expects to be met by immigration officials, who have been informed by Scottish authorities of their impending arrival.

Ms Kane, a Socialist Party representative, said: "The authorities have said she is being removed under the Dublin Convention, to be returned to the country she came from. I am not entirely happy because she had put in an asylum claim in Britain because she had no idea what was going to happen."

Ms Ikolo wants to remain in Ireland but is unsure of her next move. Although she claims to have applied for residency following the birth of her daughter, immigration officials have no record of the application.