Minister asked not to deport Nigerian woman after miscarriage
The Minister for Justice and Equality Alan Shatter was being asked today for an undertaking not to deport an asylum seeker who suffered a miscarriage in Dublin yesterday while awaiting deportation to Nigeria.
Barrister Paul O’Shea met Olayinka Ijaware at the Four Courts this morning to discuss possible judicial review proceedings challenging her deportation.
Mr O’Shea, who appeared before the High Court on another unrelated matter, said outside the courtroom today hat the undertaking from the Minister was being sought pending the legal challenge to Ms Ijaware’s deportation.
The Nigerian mother of two suffered a miscarriage yesterday afternoon while being prepared at Dublin Airport for deportation.
Ms Ijaware, who was almost eight weeks pregnant, was taken to the Rotunda Hospital yesterday from the Airport but was later taken back into garda custody and returned to Dublin airport.
She was scheduled to be deported along with several other Nigerian asylum seekers but, in the end, after the plane had sat on the runway for a brief period the flight was cancelled.
Ms Ijaware, who has two children aged seven and five, has been resident in Tramore, Co Waterford, for about four years.
She had her application for asylum here rejected but claims she was still in the process of appealing the decision when she and her two children were taken by members of the Garda National Immigration Bureau to the airport yesterday.
Ms Ijaware’s legal team issued the brief statement after having been approached by the media outside the High Court this morning. No application was made in court pending the outcome of the request for an undertaking from the Minister.
