An interim injunction was granted by the High Court yesterday which restrains the Minister for Justice from deporting a woman who was arrested in Co Sligo on Thursday after being in hiding for five weeks.
Pamela Izbekhai was taken into custody by gardaí on Thursday after leaving a reunion meeting with her two young children and a social worker.
Ms Izbekhai, who had not seen her daughters Naomi (5) and Jemima (3) since December 8th, recently made an impassioned plea to Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to lift the threat of deportation to Nigeria against her.
On the application of lawyers for Ms Izbekhai yesterday, Mr Justice Barry White granted an interim injunction, returnable to January 23rd, restraining the Minister from deporting Ms Izbekhai.
Laurence Masterson, counsel for Ms Izbekhai, said she was in Garda custody and there was a fear she would be deported before the hearing of her legal challenge to deportation, scheduled for January 23rd.
He said his client's two children were in care.
If returned to Nigeria, Ms Izbekhai feared her two young girls would be subjected to genital mutilation, Mr Masterson added.
Her first daughter, Elizabeth, bled to death after undergoing this procedure and she feared that her two young daughters would be subjected to the inhumane treatment.
Ms Izbekhai had not been in a position to set down her case in an affidavit as her whereabouts were not known after her arrest, Mr Masterson said.
Mr Justice White ordered that an affidavit be sworn by next week and that Ms Izbekhai should not be deported before her case was heard on January 23rd.