Deporting Babies

It's an ugly sight. Last week, the young Nigerian man about to sit his final school exams was deported; on Thursday he was reprieved; now it has emerged that a three year old child was take from her classroom and deported to Nigeria last week, with fifty others, including the child's mother. Thinking back to twelve months ago, the Irish people overwhelmingly passed a constitutional referendum denying citizenship to those children born in Ireland of non-Irish parents. Some sort of selfish, narcissistic pleasure perhaps in keeping a tight hold on all of the gold this Celtic Tiger has borne us. It is a strange one indeed - these people are not taking our jobs, they are not taking ourplace in the breadline. They are seeking to share in our success, to contribute to a growing economy that demands an ever increasing contribution, according to the ESRI. We are not taking advantage of the skills of immigrant workers, the august body declared on Wednesday.

Then there is the Filipino lady forced to work on an Irish Ferries boat as a beautician for €1 per hour. She wasn't the first, according to Irish Ferries, and they should have taken more care. The ones that are here, we exploit them. And the one's we can't exploit, we deport them. We are creating for ourselves a prison, who's walls are made of solid gold, and who's foundations are of sand.