Mother in hiding appeals to McDowell for help

A mother who spent Christmas in hiding without her children to avoid deportation, yesterday appealed to Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to "have pity on me".

Pamela Izevbekhai, from Nigeria, has been separated from her two small daughters for three weeks since going into hiding. She described her torment yesterday of not seeing her children Naomi (5) and Jemima (3) on Christmas Day .

"Yesterday was Naomi's birthday. She was five and I did not get to say happy birthday."

Pamela said she left Nigeria to save the lives of her daughters. Her eldest child Elizabeth was 19 months old when she bled to death in 1994 after undergoing female circumcision. Pamela fled to Ireland leaving her husband Tony and teenage son Adrian behind in a bid to prevent her two small daughters from having to undergo the same procedure.

On December 8th last she disappeared after immigration officers, acting on a deportation order signed by the Minister, arrived at Globe House, a residence for asylum seekers in Sligo, where she and the girls had lived for almost a year.

Since then she has been staying with friends at a secret location while the girls have been placed with a family in the Sligo area.

Pamela says that her solicitor had been assured that she would get to see the children over the Christmas period but the foster family were not informed and the only communication has been by phone.

She bought them jewellery and bikes for Christmas but doesn't know when she will be able to deliver them.

"They think I am on holidays. Naomi asked me on the phone exactly where I was on my holidays and I told them I was in the wilderness."

Pamela's initial application for refugee status was turned down. After her appeal failed, the Minister then signed a deportation order and she was due to be deported at the beginning of December.

Politicians of all parties have made representations on the family's behalf while the Sligo-based Bishop of Elphin, Dr Christy Jones, has also been in contact with the Minister on her behalf.

Sligo-Leitrim TD John Perry (FG) who has raised the case in the Dáil said he was appalled and embarrassed that a family was being treated in this way.

"I told the Minister that this was a genuine case, that all that needed to be done was give them another chance to apply so that new information be taken into consideration," said Mr Perry.

"Right up to close of business on Christmas week I was in touch with the Minister's office and I am bitterly disappointed that this woman and her children have been treated in such a heartless way. Can we as a nation be so heartless?" Mr Perry said.

Pamela stressed that she had left a good life in Nigeria where her husband has a business and she worked in a bank.

She said she was desperately trying to find the words to convince the Minister. "He is probably a very busy man but I am sure he sees his family. I would ask him to think of the worry he would feel if he had a daughter and for some reason he did not know where she was for a day, and to try to imagine how I worry about my girls and what could happen to them." Facing into her fourth week away from her daughters she said: "I am hiding. I am afraid. I am heartbroken".

The Department of Justice has said it does not comment on individual cases.