A Nigerian man who claims he came to Ireland because he feared he would become a human sacrifice if he stayed in Nigeria has secured a High Court order overturning the Minister for Justice's refusal to revoke an order to deport him.
Mr Olasupo (Ola) Olorunyomi (23) with an address at Montrose Drive, Artane, Dublin had applied for asylum following his discovery in January 2000 that his father was a member of a secret cult and had pledged to sacrifice his first born son to this cult.
Mr Olorunyomi had told the court in an affidavit that his fear of return to Nigeria was so strong he would rather die than return.
In his judgment on Mr Olorunyomi's application for leave to seek an order quashing the Minister's decision, Mr Justice Gilligan said a consultant
psychotherapist's report had stated the man was deeply depressed and at times quite actively suicidal. He would continue to be so until the risk of a return to his homeland was rescinded.
The report "clearly makes for significant reading and concluded that the applicant's fragile sense of identity and security painstakingly rebuilt over his years in Ireland is dangerously undermined by the threat of deportation", he said.
The judge said that the man's first application for asylum failed. The Refugee Appeals Tribunal had sympathy for him and was impressed by his character references but had stated that the humanitarian aspects of the case were not within its jurisdiction.
Mr Justice Gilligan said the applicant's solicitor had on July 4th 2002 written to the Minister advising that his client had presented himself at the Immigration Bureau, as requested, on June 28th 2002.
Since then, Mr Olorunyomi's solicitors had become aware,
as a result of contact with the Institute of Psycho Social Medicine in Dun Laoghaire, that there were good grounds to believe the applicant "may well attempt to take his own life before the repatriation takes place."
Mr Justice Gilligan said at issue in this case was a bona fide risk to the applicant's life which had been brought to the attention of the Minister, the judge said.
He said he was satisfied the Minister could not come to a conclusion not to revoke the deportation order.This was against a background where there was a bona fide concern about the risk to life and involved considerations relating to the requirements of constitutional justice and a duty to consider the evidence before making a decision.
He granted an order quashing the decision of the Minister of July 5th, 2002 refusing to revoke the order to deport the applicant and adjourned the hearing to August 30th when he will consider what further order should be made.