Foreign
Worker sacked while awaiting visa renewal awarded €25,000
A fashion buyer who felt she was “treated like a criminal” when she was fired while waiting for her work visa to be renewed has won €25,000 for unfair dismissal.
“I was in tears, crying non-stop. I told him my visa’s going to be renewed in three days, they can’t do it to me, it’s wrong. He said no, that’s your letter of termination,” the worker, Poliane Fernandes Lima, told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) earlier this year.
The tribunal said her former employer, Elland Distributors Ltd, trading as Born Clothing at an address in the Oranmore Business Park in Galway, was acting on “incorrect information” when it fired the worker.
Ms Lima said in evidence to a hearing in August this year that her boss, Marty Murphy, approached her as she was leaving work on January 24th, 2024, with a letter of termination and told her to “go upstairs; take your belongings and leave”.
Ms Lima said her visa had run out two days earlier, but she had a renewal appointment the following week and she had told the company’s payroll administrator the month before that she would be late having it renewed.
The company denied a breach of legislation. Giving evidence, Mr Murphy said when it realised there might be an issue with the paperwork, managers at the firm “immediately” looked for advice on the matter from its external human resources advisers.
“ESA, they told us the ramifications of employing someone without a working visa,” he said, of the discussions. He said it was his understanding there could be a “large fine”.
He was questioned by adjudicator Niamh O’Carroll on what discussions he had with Ms Lima about her visa before handing her the letter. Mr Murphy said the company “knew from conversations” Ms Lima had with the company’s payroll administrator that Ms Lima “was in renewals” for her visa.
“You didn’t ask her, you looked at what you had on file and said that’s it, you’re gone, without one conversation with her – why was that?” Ms O’Carroll asked.
“We had no paperwork, nothing, from Polly,” Mr Murphy said.
“You’re not answering the question I’m asking you. Why not go to her? Did you ask: ‘Did you get it renewed?’”
“No,” Mr Murphy said.
“You didn’t ask her that, you just dismissed her with no process whatsoever, no investigation, not so much as a question asked – why was that?” Ms O’Carroll asked.
“We cannot employ someone without a visa,” Mr Murphy said.
The tribunal heard Ms Lima was dismissed on Thursday 25th January this year and received her renewed visa on Sunday 28th January.
Ms O’Carroll put it to him that the visa renewal was inside Ms Lima’s notice period and asked whether this had been taken into consideration by the management.
“No, we did not,” Mr Murphy said.
The adjudicator paused her questioning of Mr Murphy at this point and addressed the respondent’s representative, Lauren Maguire of ESA Consultants – telling her: “Ms Maguire, you need to go back and negotiate more with the complainant. Read between the lines of what I’m saying. There’s no procedure followed whatsoever in this case.”
Ms O’Carroll then suspended the virtual hearing for a time before resuming the matter and proceeding to hear Ms Lima’s evidence.
She explained that she had been “happily employed” in Dublin working for a major international fashion house before being “hunted” for the position with Born Clothing in Galway.
Ms Lima said she had just got engaged in December 2023 and had applied for a mortgage with her fiance, to whom her immigration status was linked.
She said that when Mr Murphy came to her on January 25th and said the company was letting her go because of the expiry of her visa she was “in shock”.
“I said it would be renewed; it could be back on Monday. He told me to go back upstairs, get all my belongings from my desk and leave,” she told the WRC.
“I definitely feel like I was treated like a criminal, something like that. It’s very upsetting, why did they do that? To you now, I say I don’t know, because the relationship was always okay, never a question about my performance at work, so it was an absolute shock to me,” she told Ms O’Carroll.
“I was never illegally here, and I was never not able to keep working here – it seems like they don’t understand it,” Ms Lima said, just before Ms O’Carroll closed the hearing.
In her decision, published on Friday, the adjudicator said she was satisfied Ms Lima had applied for a visa renewal “well before it expired” and so met the Department of Justice’s criteria for the grace period.
“The information in relation to the visa is on the department website and is readily available to anyone who looks for it. Even that menial task was not carried out prior to terminating the complainant’s employment,” she wrote.
The company had unfairly dismissed Ms Lima “in the absence of any procedures whatsoever and acting on incorrect information”, she concluded.
Noting that Ms Lima had made “strenuous” efforts to find new employment but had not by the time of the hearing in August this year, Ms O’Carroll directed Elland Distributors Ltd to pay the worker €25,000 in compensation.
South Africa’s anti-immigration group, March and March, has announced September 30 as a fresh deadline for undocumented foreigners to leave the country, as it staged a protest outside the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Durban on Monday.
The group marched through central Durban under the theme, “It’s time to fetch your people,” calling on African leaders attending the 46th SADC Summit to take back their citizens living in South Africa without legal documentation.
March and March had earlier led nationwide protests on June 30, demanding tougher government action against undocumented immigration and warning that its campaign would continue until its demands were addressed.
Announcing its latest action, the group said the September 30 deadline would mark the beginning of what it described as the “mother of all protests”, while urging South Africans to assist the police in identifying undocumented foreigners.
The protest took place as the 46th Ordinary SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government got underway in Durban, with leaders from the regional bloc’s 16 member states in attendance.
The demonstration has renewed debate over South Africa’s treatment of foreign nationals, particularly citizens of other African countries.
President Cyril Ramaphosa recently condemned discrimination and violence against foreigners, saying South Africa could not advocate regional integration at the SADC summit while practising exclusion within the country.
The June 30 protests were accompanied by security operations and reports of attacks and looting in some areas, according to police reports cited in the original report.
March and March has continued to demand tougher action against undocumented immigration, while tensions over the treatment of foreign nationals have prompted some African countries to evacuate their citizens from South Africa.
The latest protest has brought the immigration dispute directly to the doorstep of the SADC summit, placing the issue before regional leaders whose citizens are among those affected.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to bomb Oman if it “gets in the way” of a US deal with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, while calling on Tehran to surrender.
Trump made the remarks in an interview with Fox News journalist Trey Yingst, amid ongoing talks between Oman and Iran over future maritime navigation arrangements through the strategic waterway.
“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them,” Trump said, referring to the discussions between Oman and Iran as Washington pursues its own negotiations.
Iranian and Omani officials have been holding talks for weeks, with Iran’s Foreign Ministry saying Monday that both sides were working towards a joint declaration on the strait.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Strait of Hormuz is under US control, despite Iran maintaining an effective blockade that has severely restricted maritime traffic.
On Friday, Trump said he could even declare the Strait of Hormuz part of US territory, prompting Iran to insist that the strategic waterway “will remain Iranian.”
Trump also called on Iran to “put up the white flag of surrender,” according to Yingst.
The Strait of Hormuz, which lies between Iran to the north and Oman to the south, was previously regarded as an open international waterway and carries a significant share of global energy shipments.
AFP
There has been no known deployment of US ground forces in Iran during the Middle East war, with the exception of a rescue mission in April for a downed American pilot.
Hatami did not provide any details on where or when the killing or capturing of US soldiers was expected to take place.
“Anyone who kills or captures and hands over an invading American military personnel will receive a reward equivalent to $30,000 or 5 billion tomans from the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Army,” Hatami said, using an informal unit equivalent to 10,000 Iranian rials.
The war between Tehran and Washington began on February 28 after the United States, joined by Israel, attacked Iran. It was followed by an April ceasefire after nearly 40 days of fighting, and a June framework for peace talks that later collapsed.
Iran and the United States have since traded fire sporadically, with fighting mainly centred in southern Iran and around the Strait of Hormuz.
AFP
The family of Philip Ifeanyi Elobuike, an indigene of Eziama Village, Ebe, in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State, has appealed to the public for assistance in locating him after his photograph surfaced on social media following nearly two years without contact.
Elobuike first travelled to the United States around 2004 and initially settled in the Los Angeles area of California. He later moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, before relocating to Dallas, Texas.
According to his family, Elobuike remained in contact with his relatives in Nigeria until around 2024, when communication with him suddenly stopped. Before losing contact, he was active on social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.
His family had continued searching for him, and on August 11, 2026, they were relieved when his photograph surfaced on social media. The picture provided them with at least some reassurance that he was alive.
Elobuike Philip
However, contrary to reports circulating in some media outlets and on social media, Elobuike has not been reunited with his family or located by his kinsmen in the United States.
His relatives and members of the Nigerian community reportedly spent the entire day on August 12 searching for him in different parts of Dallas but were unable to locate him.
The family is therefore appealing to members of the public, particularly Nigerians and other individuals in the Dallas area, to assist in locating Elobuike and ensuring that he is safely reunited with his family.
The family also urged people to disregard reports claiming that he has already been found and reunited with his relatives, describing such reports as inaccurate.
Anyone who has information about Elobuike’s whereabouts or comes across him is urged to contact any of the following:
Dr. Fred Ngwu: (214) 418-8145
Moses Onyejekwe: (213) 479-2340
Law Okolo: (646) 302-2597
The family expressed appreciation to everyone who has shared his photograph and appealed for continued circulation of the information until he is successfully located.
No fewer than 205 Nigerians were deported from Canada in June 2026 as Canadian authorities intensified enforcement of the country’s immigration laws, according to official figures released by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
Immigration removal statistics published by the CBSA showed that 10,607 individuals were removed from Canada during the month, with Nigerians ranking among the top 10 nationalities affected by the exercise.
The figures indicate that Nigerians accounted for nearly two per cent of all removals carried out in June.
India recorded the highest number of deportations, with 3,323 nationals removed, followed by Mexico with 1,573. The United States accounted for 372 deportees, while Colombia and Romania recorded 354 and 293 removals respectively.
Other countries with significant numbers of nationals deported included Bangladesh, with 227, and Pakistan, with 207.
Explaining the rationale behind the removals, the CBSA said enforcing immigration laws was critical to protecting the integrity of Canada’s immigration system.
“Removing individuals who do not have the right to enter or stay in Canada is essential to maintaining the integrity of Canada’s immigration program and to ensuring fairness for those who come to this country lawfully,” the agency stated.
The latest figures underscore Canada’s continued enforcement against individuals found to have no legal right to remain in the country, as authorities seek to ensure compliance with the nation’s immigration laws.
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