The Leaving
It’s that time of year again when final year students are busy sitting mock exams. The weather is getting warmer, the pressure is mounting and judgement day in June looms. I have tremendous sympathy for Leaving Cert students. I never regret that those days are behind me and still feel that they were the exams that took the most out of me.
However, spare a thought for Olunkuwle Elukanlo (unsure of spelling, taken from Tribune), who only wishes he could sit the Leaving Cert. This Nigerian boy was deported from Ireland last week. He is pictured in Lagos on Saturday, still wearing his Palmerstown Community School uniform, on the front page of today’s Sunday Tribune (no free online version unfortunately - relevant Labour press release).
He came to Ireland when he was 15 and had been working part time in a supermarket to support his studies. He had plenty of friends and a good life here and was planning to work in construction for a year after his exams in order to raise the money necessary for him to go to college here. Instead, he is now back in Lagos with no money or family, relying on a priest who has taken him in.
There may well be more to this story than meets the eye. Yet I was struck by this story and although I can’t comment on the merits of his case, the way he was deported, with little or no notice in his school uniform, seems highly inappropriate to me.
Updates:
24 March 2005 - In a u-turn, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has granted Olunkunle Eluhanla a six month visa to enable him to sit his sit his Leaving Cert exams here.
25 March 2005 - The Irish Times leads with Paul Cullen’s article reporting that he is expected to be allowed to stay here indefinitely.
March 21st, 2005 at 3:52 am
This may seem harsh, but you can be sure he deserved to be deported. Its just too easy to come to ireland now and take advantage of the hardworking irish tax payer. Not mention that a lot of immigrant to ireland and are now coming from the ranks of criminals from africa, eastern europe. Its about time we put a system in place which attracts the people we need and stops the wrong people coming to our shores.
March 21st, 2005 at 11:47 am
how exactly was he taking advantage of the tax payer if he was employed part time to fund himself?
i can’t see how a Nigerian interested in educating himself and hoping to get a better start in life through education is “the wrong sort”.
what we actually need to do john morrison is change the minds of bigoted people like you who can’t see that some people are interested in working hard and not just sponging off the state, which in some cases is because the asylum system is fundamentally flawed. to deny asylum seekers the right to work means that they have to be dependent on the state. i am sure many of them would rather work.
perhaps some asylum seekers are criminals. but i hardly think a young man in full time education and working part time fits that description.
ironic that you are called “morrison”. have you heard of morrison visas? how many irish have worked illegally in other countries, living in fear of deportation? it’s not a pleasant thing to happen to anyone.
March 21st, 2005 at 12:51 pm
I pay top taxes to the Irish Exchequer and I’ve seen the inside of the deportation system. It is not a caring system. There are plenty of reasons to suspect the way the Immigration Bureau conducts its business. Speaking from experience, once you’re caught in the net, you have no comeback. It’s as though you don’t exist. You cannot expect fair play from an immigration officer no matter where you land. There are issues in the States and in Ireland.
However, I like the ability to converse in English to British authorities–who have earned a gold star in my book.
My book starts here:
http://irish.typepad.com/irisheyes/2004/09/refused_leave_t.html
March 21st, 2005 at 9:12 pm
i’m as concerned about where my taxes go as anyone else john, and i realise that some immigrants have exploited our system, just as some natives con the social welfare etc. but like laura, i’d like to know what constitutes the “wrong people”. i also think the ban on asylum seekers working is nonsensical…
March 22nd, 2005 at 4:15 pm
I totally agree with you about the work ban being ridiculous…it does nothing to help integration, how the government can be lecturing the people on racism whilst basically promoting it through not allowing asylum seekers to work and thus creating resentment in the Irish is astonishing.
Have the deportation authorities given any explanation about why this boy was deported? We have to agree that illegal immigration can’t be allowed or else the country would simply collapse. Thats my problem with this….my instinct is to pity the young lad who was getting on with his life here in Ireland but another part of me feels that real asylum seekers are done an injustice by those with false claims. If he was illegal, should he not have been deported??
March 22nd, 2005 at 9:35 pm
i take your point caoimhe. it could well be the case that this guy’s case to seek asylum just did not stand up. however, i heard on the radio this evening that at the 3rd stage of the process, discretion can be used and some applicants can be allowed stay put regardless.
when we have to allow in anyone who turns up from the eu i don’t see why this individual who seemed to have really made a go of it here could not stay. and even if there were valid grounds for deportation, i think that the manner in which it was done was not the most humane.
March 24th, 2005 at 4:02 pm
It’s all a stunt to spark conversation about “Get Tough Ireland” because deporting a teenager a few months short of completing state funded education is indefensible fiscal policy and incongruous social policy. When a justice minister is driving the social and education briefs of Ireland, something is out of balance.
March 25th, 2005 at 4:38 pm
Kunle is allowed to come home. Its only for six months so he can sit his leaving cert but everyone in Palmerstown is very excited about his return!
March 25th, 2005 at 4:49 pm
yes it’s great news sinead, the school in palmerstown put great pressure on - were you involved yourself?? hopefully this case has highlighted the issues in general
March 29th, 2005 at 12:18 am
He was paying taxes and settled in really well he should be allowed to stay as long as he wants. He’s not recieving any help and is pulling his own weight
**you should not judge a person by their culture or colour, But by there actions”.**