THE MOST high-profile immigration battle in Irish legal history ended early yesterday when Nigerian woman Pamela Izevbekhai and her two daughters Naomi and Jemima were deported on foot of an order signed in November 2005 by the then minister for justice Michael McDowell.
They were arrested in Sligo at about 1.30am and were flown to Lagos from Dublin airport by way of Amsterdam.The family is being accompanied on the journey by members of the Garda National Immigration Bureau.Ms Izevbekhai's deportation was expected after the European Court of Human Rights last month rejected complaints that her rights had been violated. She was seeking asylum on the basis that her nine- and 10-year-old daughters faced the threat of female genital mutilation if they returned to Nigeria.
Ms Izevbekhai’s battle against deportation began to unravel in 2009 when it emerged that documents she used to claim her first child, Elizabeth, had died in Nigeria in 1994 as a result of genital mutilation were forgeries.There was also no evidence of Elizabeth’s death at the registry of deaths in Lagos but Ms Izevbekhai said the records were obtained “in good faith” in the belief they were genuine.
Her campaign to stay here saw her make more than 20 appearances in the High Court and a number of appearances in the Supreme Court. That court’s rejection last year of her claim that the Minister for Justice had discretion to reconsider her application was seen by some legal experts as marking the end of her Irish legal challenges.
The case was taken to the European Court of Human Rights which in its decision said Ms Izevbekhai’s explanation for the use of forged documents was “inadequate” and “unpersuasive”.
On the claims regarding threats faced by her daughters if they returned to Nigeria, the court held she failed to substantiate that they would face a real and concrete risk.....
Yesterday her supporters asked why it had been necessary to “pluck two small children from their beds in the middle of the night”.
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