Family of autistic boy in final move to avoid deportation

The family of a six-year-old autistic boy, facing deportation tomorrow, is this morning making an emergency application for subsidiary protection.

They have also written to Minister for Justice Michael McDowell asking him to set aside the deportation order.

Olivia Agbonlahor from Nigeria, mother of the boy, Great, and his twin sister, Melissa, came to Ireland three years ago and applied for asylum. Their application has been refused and appeals have been rejected. Since their arrival Great was diagnosed with autism and has been receiving limited support in Killarney, where the family settled.

The family's solicitor, Kevin Brophy, said yesterday he believed the law was not on the family's side.

"Our hope is that by sending a letter in to the Department of Justice first thing tomorrow morning applying for subsidiary protection we will get some stay on proceedings," he said.

Subsidiary protection is a relatively new form of legal shelter available here since October following the transposition into Irish law of the most recent EU legislation in the asylum area, known as the Qualification Directive.

Under this directive a person is eligible for subsidiary protection if they do not qualify as a refugee but substantial grounds have been shown for believing that "if returned to his or her country . . . [ they] would face a real risk of suffering serious harm".

Mr Brophy said that as Great was autistic there was a serious risk that in Nigeria he could be deemed to have been possessed and could so face risk of death. His sister, he continued, could face female genital mutilation, or female circumcision.

He said that if the department refused to consider the application today he would seek an injunction first thing tomorrow morning. "At the end of the day though I am not hugely hopeful," he added.

Ms Agbonlahor remained in Killarney and had been in contact with Mr Brophy several times during the day. "She seems fine. It's hard to tell," he said.

He said he had been "shocked" at the "antagonism" he had been receiving about the family

"By far the response I have been getting is, 'get rid of these people'." He said he had been on radio programmes yesterday speaking about the case and reaction had been mainly negative.