- A doctor in Ireland says African women who travel to
Dublin to give birth are putting their health at risk in order to give
their babies Irish citizenship.
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- Declan Keane, head doctor at Dublin's National Maternity
Hospital, says there have been a number of cases of women travelling while
actually in labour.
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- Ireland is the only European Union country that grants
automatic citizenship to babies born within its borders.
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- It has experienced a massive rise in the number of children
born to foreign nationals in recent years.
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- In 1999, only 2% of babies were born to non-nationals.
This year the figure will be almost 20%.
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- "Most of these women, 70%, are coming from sub-Saharan
Africa and the majority of those from Nigeria," Dr Keane told Ireland's
RTE radio.
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- He said a number of women were travelling while actually
in labour and there was little time for screening and pre-natal care.
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- "There is a major disaster waiting there to happen,"
he said.
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- Court ruling
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- The problem was being experienced at all three of Dublin's
maternity hospitals, he added.
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- Last year more than 4,000 non-EU immigrants - 3,000 of
them asylum seekers - were granted residency because they were parents
of babies born in Ireland.
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- In January, the Irish Supreme Court ruled that parents
and siblings of such children do not automatically qualify for Irish citizenship.
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- But Dr Keane says mothers are still making the journey
in the hope that their child will have the option of returning to live
in Ireland when they are older.
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- "The Supreme Court judgement has done nothing to
stop them coming in," he said.
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- © BBC MMIII
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3199024.stm
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