By Lois Kapila
Two weeks after Gardaí controversially removed two Roma children from their parents, anti-racism campaigners gathered on 5 November to warn the Government that it was not enough to say sorry and move on from what some called a “State kidnapping”.
Around 80 protestors, including Roma and Traveller rights activists, anti-austerity campaigners and some politicians, took part in the lunch-time demonstration, waving banners with messages like ‘I’m a person, not a profile’ and ‘Who lives here, belongs here’.
Their message is that the Irish Government is not doing enough to encourage integration between Roma and other communities in Ireland, said Stelian Ciuciu, a Roma rights activist and co-ordinator of the Roma Integration Association, one of several bodies at the protest outside the Dáil.
“I am afraid that the same can happen again in the next few weeks,” he said through an interpreter, his son Stelian Ciuciu Jr.
Memet Uludag of the Anti-Racism Network echoed those sentiments. “The State cannot just apologise and move on. The State must act properly and find who is responsible for this process,” he said, adding that he wanted to keep on the pressure for a transparent inquiry and an improvement in the conditions of Roma people.
Gardaí were also criticised for what many view as their premature moves in taking the children from their families, only to quickly return them when the grounds for their removal proved unfounded.
“A police force must have measures in place to ensure that it does not allow racism in its ranks, or practises that are racist in their effect,” said Shane O’Curry, director of the Irish Network Against Racism (Enar Ireland).
“Policing systems must not single out specific ethnic groups for different treatment; that is ethnic profiling. When a system fails to stop things like this happening then that is institutional racism.”
The Government has announced that an inquiry will be conducted by Children’s Ombudsman Emily Logan into the actions of Gardaí and the Health Service Executive (HSE) after they took two Roma children away from their parents over suspicions that their distinct appearance meant they were not related.
But independent TD Mick Wallace told the crowd that the way Minister for Justice Alan Shatter had initially responded to the removal of the children was “disturbing”.
Minister Shatter first ordered an internal inquiry and only after pressure decided to appoint the Children’s Ombudsman to investigate how and why it happened, he Wexford TD said.
Wallace also questioned why the Garda Ombudsman Commission, which has in-depth knowledge of Garda procedures, has not been given the nod to investigate.
“The minister, for some reason of his own, has decided not to give [the power to investigate] to them,” he said.
