Lawyers aim to halt deportation of autistic boy

LAWYERS representing a six-year-old autistic boy are hoping that Michael McDowell’s successor will adopt a more humanitarian approach by stopping his deportation to Nigeria.

Great Agbonlahor, along with his twin sister Melissa and mother Grace all face deportation. A High Court judge recently decided that a ministerial refusal to revoke the deportation orders was not a violation of theirhuman rights.

However, solicitor Kevin Brophy, acting for the family, said new evidence would be presented to the minister’s successor which could sway the case.

Instead of taking the boy’s case to the Supreme Court, as first planned, Mr Brophy is to submit new documents to the Department of Justice, which will include a medical expert’s report on the lack of proper treatment for autism in Nigeria.

“We will be putting a further application before the new minister showing that Great has been diagnosed autistic, and not with ADHD which was what Minister McDowell based his judgment on,” said Mr Brophy.

The solicitor said he would be seeking to secure understanding with the new minister that the boy and his family would not be deported until the new submissions had been considered.

However, he warned that, if the new incumbent took the same line as Mr McDowell, the legal team would take another case to the High Court and to the Supreme Court, if necessary. “We will also be sending the new minister a report from an expert on medical services in Nigeria. It will show how society there treats autistic people very harshly, believing wrongly that they have been possessed by evil.”

Supporters of the boy, who was born in Italy, say he should be allowed to stay in this country where he will receive proper treatment.

Great’s mother was born in Nigeria and she arrived in Ireland with her children in March 2003. Neither Great or his sister have ever resided in Nigeria.

The first attempt to deport the family was made in 2005, when they were living at an asylum-seeker reception centre in Clonakilty, Co Cork. They have now moved to Tralee, Co Kerry, where Great is receiving treatment for his autism and is said to be responding well.