The Government’s immigration policies are forcibly separating families of Irish children, and allow no mechanism to appeal, Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin Raymond Field has said. ‘Not only are parents forced to live in different countries but they must choose where and with whom their child will live,’ he notes. Bishop Field, chairman of the Irish Bishops’ Council for Justice and Peace, says: ‘Ireland is the only EU member state without primary legislation on family reunification for immigrants. In Ireland, in accord with EU law, a child is entitled to Irish citizenship if one parent is an Irish citizen or a legally resident immigrant. The other parent may be someone whose visa is expiring or whose asylum application has failed. However, despite a child’s rights as an Irish citizen, we are now seeing the deportation of a parent whose immigration status is irregular.’

Pray: that Eire’s immigration process will take into account the human tragedy of split families. (Isa. 63:8)

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