Irish-born baby faces deportation to Cameroon

THE Irish-born baby girl being held in a detention centre in Britain will be sent with her mother to Africa unless authorities here intervene.

London’s Home Office said it did not discuss individual cases but made clear it abides by its immigration rules in all cases.

According to authorities in Britain, this means Percieliz, a one-year-old Irish citizen who has been locked up in a Scottish detention centre for days, will be removed to Cameroon, her mother Mercy’s home country.

The pair have been held for the last nine days in the centre. It’s a closed centre, surrounded by barbed wire and uniformed guards. They have been held at Dungavel in Lanarkshire since they were stopped by British immigration officials as they were returning to Dublin from a visit to Scotland.

One British official said they will be removed unless Irish authorities want them back in Dublin. The Home Office appears to be working on the basis that Ms Ikolo is a failed asylum seeker in Ireland. Authorities, a spokesman said, are taking into account the changed circumstances following the Supreme Court judgment that denied a right of automatic residency to parents of Irish-born children.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said it was still investigating the case but no one had made an official approach to its consul in Edinburgh or embassy in London on behalf of the girl.

There has already been one attempt to deport Ms Ikolo and Percieliz. They were taken to Glasgow Airport last Wednesday and, Ms Ikolo said, told they were being sent to Uganda in east Africa.

“I told them I was from Cameroon, that I’ve never been in Uganda. I asked them why did they want to send me to Uganda.” After arguing her case she was returned to Dungavel.

Ms Ikolo has asked the Irish authorities to intervene on behalf of her child. “I just want to get out of here. I will go through the process of asylum and if I fail, I fail. I made a mistake coming to Scotland for a visit but want to be back in Ireland.”

Her case might be complicated by an apparent lack of evidence that she applied for residency. Immigration consultant Olaitan Ilori, in Dublin working on behalf of Ms Ikolo, said authorities here have said they have no record of the application, despite Ms Ikolo insisting she lodged it a year ago.

There is no doubt about Percieliz Ikolo. Records in Dublin’s registration office confirms her birth in the Rotunda Hospital last summer.