A Sligo-based woman who lost her latest legal challenge to her deportation this morning is to appeal her case to the Supreme Court.
Pamela Izevbekhai claimed her two young daughters, Naomi (7) and Jemima (6), would be at risk of serious harm due to female genital mutilation (FGM) if returned to Nigeria. Her eldest daughter died in 1994 from haemorrhage after undergoing FGM.
Ms Izevbekhai took judicial review proceedings after the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform refused to consider her claim for "subsidiary protection" here. Subsidiary protection can be granted to people who are not entitled to refugee status but who need international protection because of their situation.
The family claimed the Minister had erred in law by refusing to grant them subsidiary protection or to overturn the deportation orders. They claimed the Minister wrongly found that material submitted by them as part of that application was "similar in content" to information submitted on their behalf in 2005 and did not constitute new information.
Mr Justice Brian McGovern refused her application this morning and found that the Minister for Justice had acted correctly and had given sufficient reasons for his decision. He said he was satisfied that the information provided did not show "altered circumstances or new facts but, rather, amount to amplification of the case made by the applicants..."
Speaking after the judgment, Ms Izevbekhai said she was very disappointed but she was not giving up her fight. "I'm not surprised, you know. It's a very sad thing to think that circumcision is not regarded by this judge as torture," she said. "It's very, very sad." She said the European Court of Human Rights had helped her case by asking for a stay on the deportation until the case was examined. "So I'm hopeful that things will go our way."
Last November, the European Court of Human Rights requested the Irish government not to deport Ms Izevbekhai and her children because it said it wanted to consider her arguments. However, if it rejects her case, she may be deported while awaiting the Supreme Court hearing.
The Irish Refugee Council said it was very disappointed at the outcome and it called on Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern to intervene. Its spokeswoman Roisin Boyd said it must not be forgotten that the case was about two little girls who were looking for protection.
If they returned to Nigeria, they faced the threat of female genital mutilation which the UN had likened to torture, she said. "So are we going to send two little girls back to Nigeria who are at risk of torture? I don't think most Irish people would want us to do that. So we are really, really worried about Pamela and about the girls but we are hoping that the Minister [Dermot Ahern] will still change his mind. It's in his power to do that."
