Drugs mule Michaella McCollum will have to spend one last Christmas in a Peruvian prison cell.
The Sunday World understands that despite getting the green light last week to see out the rest of her sentence in Northern Ireland she faces an agonising wait before being allowed home.
It is likely to be well into the New Year before the 21-year-old is allowed to leave South America and the cell she shares with 30 other criminals.
By that time her fellow drug courier Melissa Reid will be back in Scotland.
Her transfer was approved three months go and her family is hopeful she will be in a Scottish prison within the next few months.
McCollum, from Co Tyrone, was detained with Reid at Lima Airport in August last year after 11.5kg of cocaine was found in their luggage.
In December, McCollum pleaded guilty to drug smuggling and was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison.
There is a lengthy bureaucratic process to be completed before her transfer is rubber-stamped and the logisitcs are complicated – prisoners must be accompanied throughout their journey, airlines and airports must be advised, with security arrangements put in place at departure, transit and final stops.
Unionist politicians have called for the Dublin government to foot the bill for McCollum’s transfer as she is an Irish citizen.
Former Ulster Unionist leader Tom Elliott suggested the Republic should be handed the bill for her incarceration.
“If she is returned to the United Kingdom to serve her sentence it will be the UK taxpayer who will, in all likelihood, have the expense of accommodating her,” he said.
He revealed he has written to Justice Minister David Ford to explore the prospect of the Peruvian authorities helping with the costs.
“I also asked him what remission the convict would be entitled to should the prison move take place, just who will be responsible for the financial burden of the jail term and what, if any, contribution would be required from the Peruvian authorities.”
His comments were echoed by David McNarry of UKIP who said that since the Irish government had been lobbying on her behalf they should at least share the cost.
“No doubt Michaella’s parents are relieved that she is being transferred from Peru, as any parents would be,” he said.
“But surely the issue of so called dual nationality will be looked at by David Ford and the matter of Northern Ireland footing the bill for those calling themselves Irish and travelling on Republic of Ireland passports will be reviewed.”
McCollum’s solicitor Kevin Winters said the prison transfer request had been approved after representation from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and the UK National Offenders Management Service.
“It is our understanding that NOMS are due to liaise with the various prison authorities in order to facilitate the next stage of the transfer process.”
He added: “The relevant authorities in Peru and the UK have put a system in place in order to make sure that a transfer takes place as efficiently as possible”.
A Northern Ireland Prison Service spokesman said: “We don’t normally comment on individual cases.
“All transfer requests are however dealt with as expeditiously as possible.”
Reid has also requested a transfer to Scotland, but this is being dealt with by different lawyers.
Her father has met Scotland’s justice secretary Kenny MacAskill and is hopeful that his daughter will serve the rest of her sentence closer to home.
The pair faced the prospect of a maximum 15-year prison term, but struck a plea bargain to secure a shorter sentence.
They had previously been held at Lima’s Virgen de Fatima prison, but McCollum was moved to the notorious Ancon 2 prison, where conditions are described as “harsh” and where she is squeezed into a cell with 30 other prisoners.
The situation at the mixed prison, which is two-and-a-half hours from Lima, has previously been criticised by McCollum’s lawyer as “appalling”.
Mr Winters said sanitation and toilet facilities are extremely poor and all females have to use a hole in the ground, which has to be covered up because of the presence of vermin.
There are over 300 Europeans in Ancon 2, most of them drug mules, including Ulster woman Lillian Allen 48, who is serving an eight-year sentence after carrying bags for someone else through the airport, only to find they contained 8k of cocaine.