Expelled refugee on fast in coma, says wife

A failed asylum-seeker deported to Nigeria last Thursday while on hunger strike has been taken to hospital in a coma, according to his wife.

Ms Omo Ayinde said her husband, Mr Alabi Ayinde, was taken to St Nicholas Hospital in Lagos after two days in the city's Kiri Kiri Prison. She spoke to his sister, Ms Adeola Ayinde, in Lagos on Saturday evening, who told her his family had to pay the hospital to admit him.

"Then they were running around trying to get money for the injections. In Nigeria you have to buy the medication and his condition is very, very terrible. He is not breathing properly and they need money."

Ms Ayinde is planning to send her social welfare payment to help towards his treatment. Asked if this would leave her and her children short of money she said: "Yes, it is the money for food."

Mr Ayinde was deported to Nigeria with five other failed asylum-seekers on Thursday morning. He had been on hunger strike in Mountjoy Prison and on Thursday entered his 15th day of fasting. Although all six had embarked on the hunger strike, most had ended it after about a week.

Mr Ayinde failed in his High Court appeal against deportation three weeks ago. His wife, who is pregnant with their third child, and two young children, Damilola (9) and Zainab (23 months) have been given permission to remain in Ireland. Zainab was born here and is an Irish citizen.

Mr Ayinde had been detained in Mountjoy Prison while the Garda National Bureau of Immigration gathered the documents to deport him. When visited by The Irish Times last week he appeared very weak and he said his eyesight was failing.

Ms Ayinde, who intended to follow her husband to Nigeria, said she would not be travelling in the immediate future. She needs surgery connected with her pregnancy. Having had miscarriages in the past, she has been advised she would lose the baby without it.