50,000 Sign Petition to Stop Chinese Boy’s Deportation from Ireland

Despite being born and raised in the Emerald Isle and considered by his principal “as Irish as every other boy in this school,” the fourth grade student does not hold Irish citizenship due to the fact that his mother, Leena Mei Mei Xue, entered the country illegally from China’s Fujian province 12 years ago.

After numerous failed attempts to regularize her residency, a deportation order was served to Xue and her son in 2015, which was appealed several times and ultimately rejected in June of this year.

Eric’s case is the consequence of a 2004 referendum which removed the automatic entitlement of children born in Ireland to citizenship unless at least one of the parents is an Irish citizen.

This leaves the schoolboy legally stateless (he possesses neither Irish or Chinese citizenship), leading staff at St Cronan’s National School, which Eric attends, to voice concerns regarding Eric’s potential eligibility with regards to “access to China’s health or education systems,” according to the BBC.

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In response to what has been labelled a “humanitarian” issue, Maeve Tierney, principal of St Cronan’s, has led a campaign to keep the boy in the country.

“Eric is a great boy. He is a very gentle, quiet and natural child. He is also very able and well adjusted. He is part of a year of 24 pupils, eight of whom are Chinese. To take him out of the only environment he has ever known and into a situation where he knows no one and has never been just wouldn’t be right in my opinion,” Tierney told the South China Morning Post.

School staff were reported as being “overwhelmed” by the support, with over 50,000 people signing a petition backing Eric’s right to stay in Ireland.

Simon Harris, Ireland’s Minister of Health, publicly announced his support for Eric’s campaign via Twitter.

Of course, not all responses were positive. George Hook, a prominent Irish broadcaster and pundit, tweeted his distaste at Harris’s issue of focus, drawing rebuke from netizens.

Meanwhile, commenters on an Irish far-right YouTube channel expressed their markedly opposing views.

As of Oct. 26, Eric is currently under “no imminent threat of deportation,” according to Harris via The Irish Times, suggesting that, at least for now, the campaign was effective.