A Nigerian mother of two who claims deportation to Nigeria will adversely affect her six-year-old autistic son has received the backing of a number of election candidates in Cork South West, who have signed a petition to the Minister for Justice asking him to re-examine the case on humanitarian grounds.
Last month the High Court ruled that Michael McDowell was correct not to revoke a deportation order against Olivia Agbonlahor and her six-year-old twins, Melissa and Great.
Mr Justice Kevin Feeney said the issue was not a lack of treatment which would result in the death of Great but the absence in Nigeria of medical and educational facilities to ensure his full development.
Ms Agbonlahor had previously challenged Mr McDowell's deportation decision. The case was personally reviewed by the Minister last year but at the time, the diagnosis of Great's autism had not been made.
At a press conference in Bantry town square yesterday, Ms Agbonlahor publicly appealed to Mr McDowell to reconsider her family's case in light of her son's diagnosis with autism.
"I am begging the Minister to help me. It would mean so much for my son to have access to services and school. He is getting what he needs here and that really helps. My children think of this as home and they have friends here. We are settled here."
Family friend Debbie Hinman, who previously worked as a teacher in Nigeria, said it was still within the Minister's powers to grant this vulnerable family permission to stay on humanitarian grounds.
She said if Great was deported to Nigeria he was facing at best a life without treatment or at worst, an uncertain future in a country that was alien to him.
Cork South West election candidates Denis O'Donovan TD (FF), Senator Michael McCarthy (Lab), Fine Gael councillor Paddy Sheehan, Quentin Gargan (GP) and Sinn Féin councillor Cionnaith Ó Suilleabháin met Great yesterday and signed a cross-party letter requesting Mr McDowell to reverse his decision.
Mr O'Donovan said there was a compelling case for Great to remain in Ireland on compassionate grounds, while Mr Ó Suilleabháin admitted that everyone feared the worst for the boy if the family returned to Nigeria.
Dozens of locals who support the Agbonlahor family's stay here have formed the Great Justice Action Group and clergy and community leaders have lobbied on their behalf.
Ms Agbonlahor married Martins Agbonlahor, an author, in 1993. They later travelled to Italy where they secured residence permits and where their twins were born in March 2001.
Ms Agbonlahor later fled Italy because she allegedly feared persecution due to her relationship with Mr Agbonlahor, an outspoken critic of criminality among the Nigerian expatriate community in Italy. She arrived in Ireland in March 2002 and stayed at an asylum seeker reception centre in Clonakilty. She now lives in Tralee, Co Kerry.