Campaign in Ireland to halt deportation of Dublin-born schoolboy Eric Zhi to China – a country he has never even visited
- Eric Zhi Ying Mei Xue, 9, has never been out of Ireland
- Authorities plan to deport him and his mother, who entered country illegally 12 years ago
Pint-sized Eric Zhi Ying Mei Xue was born in the Republic of Ireland and has never left the country, in fact, you could say the schoolboy is as Irish as a glass of Guinness.
But the Irish government is planning to deport the nine-year-old to China in a move which has provoked a storm of controversy on the Emerald Isle and seen more than 50,000 people sign a petition calling for him to be allowed to stay in the land of his birth.
Eric was born in Dublin in 2009 and goes to primary school in Bray, County Wicklow, a coastal town about 20km (12 miles) south of the capital that has earned the nickname “Bray-jing” due to its substantial Chinese community.
At that time, the government said the law had to be tightened to stop women travelling to Ireland to exploit a legal loophole which entitled their Irish-born children to an EU passport.
