THE DEPARTMENT of Justice last night confirmed that a Sligo-based Nigerian woman and her two daughters will not be deported on December 10th, following the intervention of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Pamela Izevbekhai yesterday lost her High Court bid to prevent the deportation of herself and her two daughters, aged six and seven.
She had challenged the deportations on grounds that the children would face female genital mutilation if they returned to Nigeria, a procedure which the court has heard claimed the life of her eldest daughter Elizabeth in 1994.
After the ruling, Ms Izevbekhai was asked by Garda National Immigration Bureau officers to report to a reception centre in Dublin this afternoon to await deportation.
In a dramatic intervention, a letter from the ECHR was yesterday faxed to the Department of Justice and to Ms Izevbekhai's lawyers, confirming a section of the court would meet on December 9th to consider her application to prevent the deportations.
Last night, the department confirmed that Ms Izevbekhai will not be deported prior to December 10th, in order to allow the ECHR time to consider her application.
Ms Izevbekhai's eldest daughter Naomi (7) is currently being treated at Temple Street children's hospital in Dublin.
Shane Donnelly, a friend of the family, said the child had collapsed last Saturday and was being treated for pneumonia and a kidney stone. He said Ms Izevbekhai's supporters were slightly more hopeful after the ECHR intervention and were anxious that the family would be allowed to return to Sligo, their home for almost four years, pending the result of that process.
Róisín Boyd, spokeswoman for the Irish Refugee Council, said she believed Irish people would not consider it to be "in the common good" to send two little girls to Nigeria, knowing they were facing genital mutilation there.
Last night, supporters of the family held vigils in Sligo and outside the Dáil.
Mr Donnelly said Ms Izevbekhai was distraught, having fought for four years to protect her daughters while forced to live apart from her husband Tony and her son, who live in Nigeria. He said the couple had made the decision that she should bring the girls to Ireland after his extended family tried to kidnap them.
Mr Donnelly said the youngest child, Jemima (6), had no memories of Nigeria and both children now regarded Sligo as their home.
Amnesty International welcomed the intervention of the ECHR and said it assumed the Government would comply with the court's request.
It said lawyers for Ms Izevbekhai had applied to the court to intervene under rule 39 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights. This rule allows people facing removal from a country - who have exhausted their legal rights - to make an emergency application to the ECHR seeking intervention.
The Children's Rights Alliance, an umbrella group of more than 80 non-governmental organisations, said the case indicated that the Government was ignoring blatant human rights abuses.
"To send these two young girls back to an environment where they may be threatened with female genital mutilation, which has already claimed the life of an older sister, raises serious concerns about the Government's commitment to children," said Jillian van Turnhout, the alliance's chief executive.