Millions wasted on immigrant application delays
Two years after his arrival here he applied, in July 2003, for humanitarian leave to remain. Obviously he had no normal need of protection, or he would not have had to rely on this stratagem.
He has been given board and lodging and free education in this country since then, none of which he was entitled to in any concept of right.
Asylum seekers or anyone else without residency rights are not entitled to one day in school here beyond their 18th birthday. Neither he nor his pal, Olekunle Eluhanle, up to his return from Nigeria, was entitled to post-primary education here.
Mr Ominiyi is now using highly-paid lawyers at our expense, on top of everything else, to find a legal loophole to stay here. Justice Minister Michael McDowell is to blame for the last two years of this expense. It should be possible to make a judgement very quickly on humanitarian leave to remain. Unless there is some really outstanding reason, it should be refused.
The minister has given no explanation for taking two years or more, which is apparently quite common, to come to these decisions. Both sides of the immigration debate are demanding an explanation for this.
Mr McDowell cannot claim that the authorities in Lagos would cause him a problem if he sent back the thousands of deportable Nigerians he is leaving untouched, as he has said that while Lagos had not yet ratified its readmission agreement with us, they were “operating the spirit of the agreement.”
Perhaps we should bill him personally for the unnecessary millions he is costing the taxpayers.
Áine Ní Chonaill
PRO, Immigration Control Platform
PO Box 6469
Dublin 2
