Community vows court fight to halt family's deportation

A COMMUNITY has vowed to fund a High Court challenge to prevent the Minister for Justice deporting a four-year-old boy who suffers from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Great Agbonlahor, his twin sister Melissa and mother Olivia are expected to be deported to Nigeria within a matter of days, unless their legal team can get an injunction.

Despite pleas from more than 4,000 people, including TDs, Justice Minister Michael McDowell has refused to allow the family to stay in this country. The family's solicitor, Kevin Brophy, said there are no proper medical facilities in Nigeria for Great, and his sister could face of genital mutilation if she is sent there.

Hopes were raised among the family's supporters last October when Mr McDowell vowed to personally review the case. However, yesterday he informed the Agbonlahors that he was going to deport all three of them to Nigeria - even though both children were born within the EU, in Italy.

Mr Brophy said Mr McDowell had stated: "Ireland's medical services are subject to economic realities and to effectively advertise the country as a destination for unrestricted medical care, regardless of the illegality of the person's status, would soon result in the diminution in the quality of the service as a whole."

Mr Brophy said the minister was clearly worried about opening floodgates, but in reality, cases would be examined individually.

"This is one young child with a serious problem. This is a humanitarian gesture, we are not asking him to open the floodgates," the solicitor said.

A number of protests have been mounted around the country recently to highlight dissatisfaction with other deportation cases. Two weeks ago a crowd of more than 100 people protested outside a Sligo courthouse against the threatened deportation of a Nigerian mother-of-three. In December, a large number of Afghans protested outside the Dáil at the very high proportion of their countrymen who had been returned home.

Ms Agbonlahor was forced to flee Italy two years ago after claiming she received threats from Nigerian mafia figures. Her husband, a freelance journalist, had written about them.

The family are currently at the Clonakilty Lodge asylum-seeker reception centre in West Cork. Great goes to the local boys' national school and is to enter a special school in Dunmanway.

Ms Agbonlahor and her children have been asked to report to gardaí next Wednesday, when it is likely they will be detained to await deportation.

Gary O'Sullivan, a spokesman for the Great Justice Action Group, which collected more than 4,000 signatures in support of the family, said he was very disappointed by the decision.

He said Great was initially suspected to be autistic but subsequent diagnosis by medical experts showed he had ADHD.

Mr O'Sullivan said his group would immediately start fundraising to pay for the High Court challenge.

"There are no proper services in Nigeria and the minister is condemning an EU citizen to a possibly sub-standard life," he said.

Telling it to him straight: A child's appeal to Justice Minister Michael McDowell to stop the deportation of her friend

Dear Mc Macdule,

My name is Caroline Harrington. I am an eleven year girl student at St Joseph's Primary School for girls in Clonakilty. I highly disapprove of deporting a four year old boy who is in need of special attension, his mother and his sister.

I have reason to believe that today, 18-10-05, Great, his mother and his sister were taken by the police against their will at 7 o'clock this morning.

I then heard that it was only after they were taken from there home that you got informed that Great was a special needs child.

You then stopped them from being deported.

I then got wind of the fact that you only postponed for one week. Now, stop for a moment and think about how it would feel to be Great and knowing that you only had a week left to live in the place you love and know. Imagine leaving all of your friends.

I think that all of this deportation leads to one thing and one thing only. Racisim.

As you probably know, racisim means not liking a person because of there skin colour. I find this absolutly sickening and am not the only one who thinks along these lines. I know that you and 'Bertie' are supposed to be powerful and nice and kind and generous. And all the rest of you type of people but I don't care how much times yee all say yee are just doing your job. To me it just looks like you like having enimeis.

Well, I know I'm just a child myself but I know I can make a difference. Let Great and his family stay where they want to. After all it's a free country.

Yours Sincerely

Caroline

* This is a letter sent to Justice Minister Michael McDowell last October as part of a campaign to prevent the deportation of Great Agbonlahor and his family.