Woman flees Kerry home, fearing deportation

Gardaí in Kerry are searching for a South African woman who has fled her home after a deportation order was issued to remove her from Ireland.

Mpeta Appiakorang was due to be deported with her two children yesterday morning.

It is believed she left her home in the Tralee area at dawn before the authorities arrived, leaving her children - aged 11 and eight - behind.

Ms Appiakorang is well known in Tralee through work she had been doing with the housing charity Threshold.

Last week friends of hers had made an appeal on national radio for her to be allowed to remain her in Ireland.

It is believed she feared for her life in South Africa, where her husband and son were killed.