ECHR asks Government not to deport Nigerian woman

The European Court of Human Rights has formally asked the Government not to deport a Nigerian woman and her two young daughters to Nigeria until it has considered her arguments against the deportation orders, including that her two daughters face a real risk of female genital mutilation if returned.

The letter of request from the ECHR was issued yetserday shortly after of a High Court judge's rejection of Pamela Izevbekhai's application for an injunction restraining her family's deportation until the Irish courts have determined her judicial review challenge to the Minister for Justice's refusal last March to consider her claim for "subsidiary protection" here.

Mr Justice Johh Hedigan ruled today there were no exceptional circumstances to justify the injunction. Ms Izevbekhai, who has already lost a baby daughter after the child was forcibly genitally mutilated in Nigeria, and her two children were ordered to report to Balseskin Reception Centre, Co Dublin.

An earlier judicial review challenge by Ms Izevbekhai to the deportation orders was rejected by Mr Justice Kevin Feeney last January and, in March last, he refused the necessary permission to appeal that decision to the Supreme Court. Ms Izevbekhai's lawyers have appealed that refusal to the ECHR.

Yesterday afternoon, Ms Izevbekhai's lawyers received a letter from the ECHR stating it had granted their request that the Government should not deport the family until midnight on December 10, 2008 at the earliest to allow the ECHR time to consider the case.

In his judgment earlier, Mr Justice Hedigan ruled the exceptional circumstances that would merit granting an injunction restraining the deportation of Ms Izevbekhai and her daughters, Naomi (seven) and Jemima (six) did not exist.

Mr Justice Hedigan ruled Ms Izevbekhai had failed to make out a fair question to be tried in relation to the subsidiary protection arguments and failed to show the family would suffer irreparable damage if returned to Nigeria.

He also said the balance of convenience favoured the enforcement of the deportation orders as it was important to maintain the integrity of the State's asylum system.

Ms Izezbekhai went into hiding after the deportation orders were issued in November 2005 but was arrested in Sligo in December 2005 after emerging to see her daughters, who had been put into care when their mother disappeared. She was detained in Mountjoy jail but freed by court order in January 2006.

Ms Izevbekhai has said she left Nigeria in January 2005 due to her husband's family's active practice of FGM. Her first daughter Elizabeth died at 17 months from blood loss, which a doctor described as possibly the result of female circumcision performed on the baby.