Asylum seekers sent back to Nigeria

Sixteen children were among a group of 46 failed asylum seekers who were deported to Nigeria early yesterday morning, it has emerged.

Fifteen men and 15 women were also on the charter flight, which departed for Lagos shortly after midnight, according to the Garda press office.

Those aboard had been picked up over preceding days in Dublin, Tralee, Galway, Limerick and Cork, a spokesman said. They were accompanied on the flight by detectives from the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB), who later returned to Dublin.

No other details of the deportation were available from the Garda press office or the immigration bureau yesterday.

Rosanna Flynn, of Residents against Racism, said those deported would be jailed on their arrival in Lagos, and would have to bribe their way out of prison. Her group was attempting to contact an Irish missionary priest in Nigeria in order to help the deportees. Nothing had been heard from the deportees by yesterday evening.

Yesterday's flight was the third large-scale deportation of Nigerians this year. Some 35 failed asylum seekers and their children were deported by charter jet in June; however, one of these, Olukunle Elukanlo, was allowed to return to complete his Leaving Certificate after his classmates organised a campaign seeking his return.

The pace of deportations is expected to accelerate as new fast-track procedures are implemented which provide for the processing of cases in six weeks.

A number of those who were due to turn up at the GNIB's offices yesterday under the new procedures are believed to have gone missing and were not deported.