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LAST UPDATE | 29 Aug 2018
A LONGFORD NURSE who had been seeking asylum in Ireland returned to Pakistan on Monday and learned that his asylum status was under review the following day.
Vicky Khokhar had spent three years in a direct provision centre while his status was pending and during that time volunteered five days a week at a local nursing home.
A petition was started to save Vicky from deportation and accumulated over six thousand signatures.
That petition, along with some 80 letters of support from members of his community in Longford made up the new submission which is now under review by the Department of Justice.
Vicky’s friend Brian Flemming who started the petition told TheJournal.ie that the Department of Justice would update Vicky on his status by 21 September.
“Until the Department of Justice makes a move he’s got to stick it out in Pakistan.
“I’ve been in touch with his Pakistani friends here and I know that he’s made it back safely,” Brian said.
According to Brian, Vicky had until 27 August to leave Ireland before he would face deportation and a ten-year ban from returning to the country.
“It could have had implications for him in Pakistan too, it could have led to detention over there.
“But really his intention was not to avoid anything it was to keep the hope alive that he can come back and work in Ireland.”
On Monday before he boarded the flight to Pakistan, Vicky performed on the stage at the Abbey Theatre in a dance piece about deportation, hosted by the cast of Jimmy’s Hall.
Brian said that Vicky told the audience to look out for the asylum seekers he was leaving behind.
“His last words were guided towards other people, he was worried about his friends and people he had met in the asylum process over here.
“That show is on again on culture night on the 21 September so we will have to do it without him,” Brian said.
The Department of Justice and Equality said it does not comment on individual cases but that deportation orders “are not served lightly”.
“Any person who is the subject of a deportation order will have been notified that they must leave the State,” the Department said in a statement.
“For those issued with a deportation order, the obligation is on the person to remove themselves from the State and it is only when they decide not to do so, is enforced removal [deportation] considered as a last resort.”
The statement said that full due process is carried out before a deportation order is handed down.
“Each application is considered in detail and the applicant is given every opportunity to make their case at all stages of the process. It would be an abuse of the asylum system if those who do not qualify for refugee status were displacing asylum seekers who may qualify or who apply to come here through the various legal pathways open to non-EEA nationals.
“Indeed, it would undermine the entire immigration process if the asylum process was to be abused in this way.”
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This is the new alternative to trade unions; company models that respect their workers make the need for trade union obsolete.
But it’s not really, is it?
This guy has his exit strategy lined up and nobody expects the takeover company to continue to employ all staff at 70k. I also expect his risk analysis to include projections for an increase in contract staff, and his HR team to be supplied with copies of Mein Kampf.
Dream on buddy
Maybe it is a blocking manoeuvre nobody is going to take your start up away from you if you’ve the highest cost base possible.
I have no strong opinions on this.
@Trea.
Judging by what I see, T/Unions are almost obsolete anyway however many employers are stingy & exploit their employees.
I doubt if this generosity will ever occur in Ireland.
@Sammy very good
Hi, can you forward this article to Dail Eireann please?
Thanks in advance
Stay on topic
I’m pretty sure the minimum wage there is already over $70k
Nowhere near, a person working a 40 hour week on minimum wage in Ireland would earn in the region of €17,000 per year. That’s a massive leap away from $70,000 which is much closer to €55,000.
I re-read your comment and see I was a little off-point but the figures remain very much the same. The minimum wage in the US is $8 an hour which equates to $15,360 per year working a 40 hour week.
I meant the minimum wage in the Dail. Not clear enough obviously.
Great idea. Getting loads of free publicity.
Application form please
Do they need a cabinetmaker???
I need a cabinet maker. where are you based?
Founder and chief exec. Surely still the major shareholder so I’m guessing salary is insignificant in the grand scheme, but nice optics.
Unless there are restraints on naked capitalism, imposed or voluntarily assumed, capitalism eventually becomes unsustainable.
Although we paid the CEO’s of the Banks large fortunes in compensation packages, we got incompetent monkies.
Large salaries are no indicator of talent or ability.
Senior executive salaries are generally gross and disproportionate.
Don’t know why you got red thumbs for that
He used words of more than three syllables which tags him as a commie pinko lesbian lefty in the minds of some who post in the Journal
That much is true Tony.
Sorry @Anthony Lang
Capitalism always works. When you tinker with capitalism, like bailing out the banks, it runs into problems.
This guy is doing the capitalist thing, he’s thinking of new innovative ways to grow his business, attracting hardworking employees.
I really hope it works for him.
It is a fact that there is no correlation between the salary of the CEO and the success of a company
I see it reported in this weeks Kilkenny Reporter newspaper that Ms Siobhan Talbot, Group Managing Director of Glanbia has a remuneration package that increased from €1.02m to €1.62m since she was promoted. It is also reported that the four member executive team share a combined package worth €4.22m I always wonder when I see such figures, where is the evidence of a correlation between super pay packages and performance. It certainly wasn’t evident in banking circles.
Hes also CEO of this company http://www.reynholm.co.uk/index.php
Don’t think he can persuade the CEO of the company I work for to do the same, would be nice though.
It is a wonderful thing for the staff and I wish we could have some thinking like that here.
Anybody got a distribution list for TD’s n Ministers & any ex Taoiseagh & heads of depts & charity organisations. …!!
Whatever about this guy. Any one else remember the lead up to the dotcom bubble bust of the late 90′s.I got deja vu all over again.I remember learning to ‘code’ back in 95. Of course it was just html back them and I already could code C and Basic.I have an odd feeling about all of this.
Tech startups are getting cocky again, then? This has always ended well in the past.
Don’t worry, nobody’s falling for this tech malarkey.
This CEO is making a decision on employee happiness for $70k from a university that pays it’s professors $200K +
Yeah but those guys are really really really happy!!
There must be a snwtch…..sorry catch…..
Guessing by the thumbs down nobody else thinks so.
Really hate yiz all right now . Feckin hoors the lot of yiz !!!!
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