The High Court has ordered the release from Mountjoy Prison of a woman who was arrested earlier this month in Co Sligo having spent five weeks in hiding after a deportation order was made in her case.
Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan yesterday granted a conditional release to Pamela Izbekhai pending the outcome of her application to bring a legal challenge to a deportation order made last December. Lawyers for the Minister for Justice had opposed her being released.
Ms Izbekhai told the court she had only gone into hiding because she was afraid for her young children and of being deported to Nigeria. She broke down several times in the witness box as she told the judge: "I am afraid for my children and of being deported to Nigeria. I have already lost a daughter. I would be back in Nigeria now if I had come out before now."
She admitted she had used false documents to enter Ireland in January 2005 and said she had stayed at two houses in Co Sligo after leaving Globe House, a hostel for asylum seekers in Sligo.
She also admitted she had lied to Det Garda Michael Carr of the Garda National Immigration Bureau and had given a false name when he stopped the car in which she was a passenger on January 12th. She said she was only concerned about her children who were taken into care and have been at a foster home in Co Sligo since she disappeared.
"I am trying to make sure they are safe and I will do everything I can as a mother to safeguard my children," she said.
Ms Izbekhai went into hiding after gardaí called on December 8th last to enforce the deportation order against her and her two daughters, Naomi (5) and Jemima (3).
Ms Izbekhai told her counsel, Mel Christle SC, that she had left Globe House that morning because she saw strange people, was aware of the deportation order and wanted to seek the help of her friends.
Questioned by David Conlon Smith, for the State, she said she had been helped by different people. She said she would have been prepared to give herself up to the authorities to allow her judicial review proceedings to go ahead.
Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan ordered the release of Ms Izbekhai on condition she sign on daily at Sligo Garda station, reside at Globe House, consent to any order relating to her children made by the Health Service Executive and undertake not to apply for travel documents.
The judge also ordered Ms Izbekhai to attend substantial hearings of her proceedings and to surrender herself to the Garda within one hour of any judgment refusing her leave to challenge the deportation order.