Deportation deferred for autistic boy

AN autistic six-year-old boy was yesterday given an eleventh hour reprieve on a deportation order.

Along with his twin sister Melissa and mother Grace were expected to be sent to Nigeria on Monday.

But lawyers acting for the family confirmed the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) had agreed to defer the deportation order until July 19.

The matter came before the High Court yesterday where a judge criticised a late application to halt the deportation. Mr Justice de Valera noted the issue had featured prominently in the media over the past week.

The family were under threat of being deported to Nigeria although the children were been born in Italy. They have never set foot in the country of their mother’s birth.

Solicitor Ken Brophy said yesterday he was now a lot more hopeful that the family would be allowed to remain in this country, especially as the young boy was responding to treatment for autism.

Medical experts had warned that if returned to Nigeria he would not get any treatment.

In the High Court yesterday, Cormac O Dulachan, SC, for the family, argued Ms Agbonlahor and her children should remain here under an EU directive which became law in October 2006.

He said the subsidiary protection scheme favoured people who had failed in an asylum application but who could seek to remain in the state on humanitarian grounds.

The senior counsel told the court that the directive aimed to protect vulnerable people, including minors and the disabled, and gave primary concern to children.

Mr O Dulachan said he would satisfy the court there was a risk of inhumane or degrading treatment if Great was deported due to what was known of the treatment of people with disabilities and mental disabilities in Nigeria.

Mr Justice de Valera granted short notice to begin hearing the case next Monday.

The judge said he had seen and read media reports about the case for the last three days. He said he was unhappy about being put in a position where he was asked to make a decision less than three hours before the family was due to present themselves.

“I can’t pretend I haven’t seen what’s on television, on radio and newspapers. It would be completely foolish of me to do that,” Mr Justice de Valera said.

Ms Agbonlahor and her children arrived in Ireland in March 2002 and stayed in an asylum-seeker centre in Clonakilty, Co Cork. They have since moved to Tralee, Co Kerry, where Great is getting proper treatment for his autism.