Alan Desmond

During the past fortnight, grassroots campaigns against the deportation of two boys from Ireland have made the headlines at home and abroad while shining a light on a serious shortcoming in how Ireland deals with its resident undocumented migrant population.

The first child, Nonso Muojeke, is a 14-year-old boy who has lived in Tullamore for the past 11 years. He arrived in the country after his mother fled Nigeria and sought asylum in Ireland. The rejection of her asylum claim ultimately meant she risked being sent back to Nigeria with her children.

The second child, Eric Zhi Ying Mei Xue, is a nine-year-old Bray schoolboy who was born in Ireland after his mother’s arrival from China 12 years ago. Following rejection of her application to remain in the State, she now faces expulsion.

Given the outpouring of sympathy across traditional and social media, it is not surprising politicians of all hues have been quick to voice support for the energetic campaigns launched by the friends and communities of both boys. Luckily for Nonso and Eric, it looks as if the Department of Justice will grant them a right to remain.

Unfortunately, however, these are not isolated cases but are representative of countless other similar scenarios produced by the current operation of Ireland’s immigration system.

Many members of the public are baffled by the fact a child born in Ireland could, nine years later, face expulsion to a country he has never known. This, however, is a result of the 27th Amendment to the Constitution, which removed the right to citizenship for all persons born in Ireland.

The amendment was approved by an overwhelming majority of voters in 2004 and, since then, children born in the State to unlawfully present migrants do not automatically become Irish citizens.

The announcement by the Labour Party at the weekend that it is to bring forward legislation to ensure children born in the State can become citizens after a period of time is to be welcomed. One of the cardinal values of citizenship is the protection it guarantees against deportation.

The mooted legislation would not, however, go far enough to address the bigger issue of Ireland’s wider population of undocumented migrants, not all of whom have been born in the State.

The NGO Migrant Rights Centre Ireland estimates that there are up to 26,000 undocumented migrants in Ireland. Most of them have lived in the country for more than five years, working, raising children and becoming an important part of the fabric of communities throughout the country in the process.

All of them face the same Damoclean threat of deportation which, until recently, hung over Nonso and Eric. This threat is not only the source of serious psychological distress, but also has more practical consequences: the fear that contact with the authorities could trigger the deportation process foments reluctance to demand respect of rights and renders migrants vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

How then should the Government deal with the presence of undocumented migrants? In today’s globalised world of porous borders, it is impossible to prevent all irregular migration. A variety of obstacles makes the expulsion of all irregular migrants equally impossible. The Government would therefore do well to introduce a permanent regularisation mechanism which would confer a legal status on such migrants, allowing them to emerge from the shadows of irregularity.

The main eligibility criterion should be residence in the State for a specified minimum period of time, for example five years. Some additional requirements, such as the absence of a criminal record, are justifiable but should be kept to a minimum so as to maximise the number of undocumented migrants who may regularise their status.

Regularisation will only be meaningful and effective if its beneficiaries do not fall back into irregularity. This means granting a legal status which, even if short in duration, is easily renewed and in the long run puts migrants on the path to long-term residence and, ultimately, citizenship.

Many of Ireland’s undocumented migrants are, after all, Irish in every single way but one: on paper.

It is within the Government’s power to bring these citizens-in-waiting out of the shadows and put them on the road to full legal membership of Irish society. Failure to do so will see many more Nonsos and Erics making the headlines in the years to come. The anti-deportation campaigns in Tullamore and Bray are to be applauded. They are, however, a sop rather than a solution.

It is not acceptable that migrants without permission to remain in the country must rely on the chance that their risk of being deported will generate sufficient levels of compassion to elicit a last-minute reprieve from the Justice Minister.

The Government must legislate now to reduce Ireland’s undocumented migrant population.

• Alan Desmond is editor of the recently published “Shining New Light on the UN Migrant Workers Convention” (Pretoria: Pretoria University Law Press, 2017), which is available for free download.