THE WOMAN and her two daughters who are facing deportation to Nigeria have been granted permission to fight their case in the High Court.
An injunction was granted to Pamela Izevbekhai and her two daughters, Naomi (7) and Jemima (5), on the grounds that their lawyers were seeking to challenge a decision made by Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan.
On Wednesday, the Minister decided not to use his discretion to grant a subsidiary protection order to allow her and her children to remain in this country.
Ms Izevbekhai says that if her daughters were to return to Nigeria, they would almost certainly face female genital mutilation, from which her eldest daughter Elizabeth died before she moved to Ireland in 2005.
An application was made yesterday for a High Court judicial review of Mr Lenihan's decision.
Ms Izevbekhai and her children had been ordered to present themselves at Balseskin Reception Centre in north Dublin on Wednesday where they were told to stay until their deportation, which was expected to happen early next week.
The court heard yesterday from Ms Izevbekhai's counsel, Mel Christle SC, that new evidence about female genital mutilation in Nigeria had not been considered by Mr Lenihan.
The Minister, Mr Christle said, had concluded that there were no grounds in which he could exercise his discretion to make a subsidiary protection order.
In granting leave to the Izevbekhai family, Mr Justice John Edwards said he was satisfied that an arguable case had been made on their behalf. He said reasons were not given by the Minister as to why there were "no grounds" that would allow him to exercise his discretion in the matter and grant her such an order.
The judge said that a process which greatly affected the lives of applicants "must be transparent".
The Minister must be seen "to act rationally" and give adequate reasons for his decision, which in his view was not the case here.
Commenting on Mr Christle's contention that new evidence in relation to female genital mutilation in Nigeria was not considered by the Minister, Mr Justice Edwards said a lot of evidence was before him that the practice remains "endemic" in the west African nation.
He said that the evidence obtained by Ms Izevbekhai's legal team suggested that protections for those opposed to female genital mutilation in Nigeria is "more theoretical than real". He returned the matter to April 7th.
The Izevbekhai case has received the backing of two high-profile human rights organisations.
Amnesty International said it did not accept that Nigeria could protect Ms Izevbekhai and her daughters from harm and strongly opposed any forced deportation in this case on that basis.
Colm O'Gorman of Amnesty International's Irish section said the girls would be at risk of being subjected to horrific abuse.
Jillian van Turnhout of the Children's Rights Alliance said the Government must realise that genital mutilation was not just a problem in some faraway land and this week's press coverage only proved that it was a problem that would not go away.
"Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child requires the Government to properly care for and protect all children living in Ireland, thereby ensuring that they do not suffer any form of violence, abuse or neglect at the hands of those who look after them.
"Nevertheless, there is currently no specific legal protection against it in Ireland. Neither is there specific legislation to protect a child from being removed to have the procedure carried out overseas," she said.