The Roscommon man says his family needs to come home.
A 25-year-old Irishman living in Vietnam has called on the Department of Foreign Affairs to provide emergency, temporary documentation so his recently-born daughter can leave the country with him.
James Burke, from Frenchpark, Co. Roscommon, had been teaching English in Ho Chi Minh City, where he met the child’s mother, Meghan Bartok.
The couple and their daughter Claire, who was born in April, are now stuck in the city, which currently has a strict Covid-19 lockdown in place.
Only after her birth did they realise he could not be registered as Claire’s father in Vietnam if they were not married.
The pair, who had been planning to get married in Ireland, tried to obtain a marriage certificate in Vietnam in order to register James as Claire’s father, but they have yet to receive it.
“Without the certificate I can’t be registered as the father and [Claire] can’t be given Irish citizenship or come to Ireland,” he told the Irish Times.
Meghan, a US citizen, is also unable to travel to her homeland with the child as she does not have the necessary documentation to go there either.
James is now appealing to the Department of Foreign Affairs to issue emergency documentation for Claire so the family can leave the lockdown that has left them struggling financially and in a state of what feels “like house arrest.”
“People are being given a slip of paper that allows one member of the household out, once a week, for a maximum of two hours, to do shopping,” he continued, adding that they weren’t even given this. The family were entirely confined to their apartment, getting necessary supplies and groceries delivered.
But even online ordering takes a while to be delivered, sometimes even more than a week.
“Everyone is relying on the same delivery service. The last time we went out of the house was Tuesday, when I got my first AstraZeneca jab. That was about a kilometre from the house.”
Due to the restrictions, James is no longer working and Meghan is on a reduced number of hours of online teaching.
“It’s like house arrest,” James said. “It is house arrest to be honest, and now they’ve announced the lockdown is going on for another month.
“We really need and want to come home.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs told IT that it was aware of the case and was providing consular assistance, but does not comment “on the details of any specific case.”
