TEEU opens petition site for Recto Family in fight against deportation
Mar 7th, 2010 by Conor McCabe
[Padraig Yeates writes:]
There is a petition to protest at the deportation of John Recto, his wife Liezel and their three children to the Philippines Ireland at www.teeu.ie and we would ask you to sign it.
ICTU General Secretary David Begg and TEEU General Secretary Designate Eamon Devoy have written to the Naturalisation and Immigration Service seeking a stay on the deportation and the Migrant Rights Centre has also taken up the cause of the Rectos.
John was the third man to join the hunger strike in protest at unfair dismissals and the fight for union recognition at Green Isle Foods in Naas, County Kildare, Ireland that was launched earlier this month. The dispute has now been resolved and the outcome was unanimously accepted by the workers.
However John Recto’s work visa has not been renewed and he now faces deportation. He has lived in Ireland for eight years and worked throughout that period, apart from the six months he has just spent on the picket line.
His wife Liezel joined him with their two oldest children aged seven and six, five years ago. The children have lived virtually all their lives in Ireland. The couple’s youngest child, one year old, was born in Ireland.
The Rectos applied for naturalisation in 2008.
He stood by his fellow workers during the strike. If he is deported it will be taken as a warning that non-EU citizens can only work here so long as they keep their heads down and do not look for their rights in the workplace.