Honey, I’ve lost the kid!

Just spotted the attached story on http://www.examiner.ie…

Potted synopsis: A refugee family in Kerry was rounded up to be deported. The authorities missed one of the children at their school (apparently the gardai arrived at the school after letting out time). The rest of the family was bundled off back to their country of origin… 7 year old kid left stranded without family.

7 year old kid = Senior Infants to First Class tops, so the end of day time is usually before 2pm. Any kid can tell you that (as they rush past you to get home to watch the Den).

The Dept of Justice are quoted in the article as saying:

“…it was generally up to the parents of a child to insist on a search for him. Parents were not forced to leave without children. Gardaí were not obliged to conduct a search if parents did not request them to do so. “

Apparently the Refugee Support Service is believes that no great attempt was made to locate the child before deporting his parents and the rest of his family.

In this case, the child was collected “most likely” by relatives…. but there was no guarantee at the time – no one knew where he was. Let’s repeat that… a 7 year old child was missing, was not where he was supposed to be… why did this not trigger some serious searching?

…if his name was Mícheal Óg Mac Dubhgaill chances are all hell would have broken loose until he was tracked down. I sincerely doubt that the parents would have had to insist on a search. Should we take it then that it is OK in the eyes of the Minister for Justice for the children of refugees to go missing without a trace?

If the parents weren’t forced to go without their child, why are they there and he here? Does the Dept of Justice want to make out that they were bad parents? Or that they actually lived in a converted shoe while in Ireland, on the grounds of having so many children they didn’t know what to do?

Right now I have a mental image of the Minister sitting at his desk, stroking a cat with a metal hand and saying “Next time, Refugee, I’ll get you next time!!!” – just like Dr. Claw in Inspector Gadget.

Of course, the solution would be for the Minister to hire the Child Catcher from Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang as a consultant.