Labour call for structured immigration policy

A structured immigration policy must be urgently implemented to prevent “cloak and dagger” deportations taking place in the dead of night, it was claimed today.

Joe Costello, Labour’s justice spokesman, said the case of Nimota Banidele, who fears she will be stoned to death if deported to Nigeria, highlights serious flaws in the system.

He said: “I have serious problems with the way the Government is handling the case and it does appear the Justice Minister is secretly and surreptitiously preparing for a mass deportation.

“It’s ridiculous to have individual cases like this occurring again and again without any transparent structure and immigration policy as such.”

Ms Banidele, aged 38, fled Nigeria in August 2002 after being jailed for having children outside marriage.

She was due to be stoned to death the following month but managed to escape when she found out one of the guards was planning to sleep with her.

Now the mother-of-three has been told to report to the Garda National Immigration Bureau next Thursday and believes the order amounts to a death sentence, amid rumours of a planned mass deportation to Nigeria.

Mr Costello added: “The absence of any structure or any real knowledge about what’s going on is very cloak and dagger but it happens all the time.

“There is a real need for a proper immigration policy and that should be implemented so individuals are not dealt with on a one by one basis.

“There are a lot of anomalies in the system that are not being dealt with. The way people are deported in such a surreptitious fashion is not proper and is not right.”

Ms Banidele’s initial application for asylum in Ireland was refused and, having appealed on humanitarian grounds she is now considering seeking a judicial review.

Rosanna Flynn, spokeswoman for Residents Against Racism, the group fighting her cause, said there was still time to prevent Ms Banidele’s death.

“Justice Minister Michael McDowell can step in and stop this,” she said. “We will continue to support her and have been collecting thousands of signatures which prove Irish people don’t want this to happen.”

Itayi Viriri, policy officer for the Irish Refugee Council supported the calls for a more transparent system.

“We have appealed to the Government to allow the NGO sector to provide some kind of monitoring of how such deportations are carried out,” he said.

“We have no access to the airports, no information about what is planned. We are not against deportation itself but it is the way they are handled, the lack of transparency which we are concerned about. A lot needs to be improved.” he added.