Pickets over Nigerian student

Fáilte Ireland offices abroad are to be picketed next week as part of a campaign to embarrass the Government into allowing the return of a deported Nigerian student.

Supporters of Olunkunle Eluhanla (19), a Leaving Cert student who was deported last week, say they will protest outside the organisation's offices in Amsterdam and Glasgow.

They also plan pickets outside offices in Belfast and Derry, as well as a rally at the Dáil on Wednesday.

Mr Eluhanla yesterday pleaded with the Government to allow him return to Ireland. "I am begging you, please let me come back. Please allow me to return to my real life in Ireland," he told The Irish Times from Lagos.

Still wearing the uniform of Palmerstown Community School he had on when he was detained by immigration police last Tuesday, he says he has suffered arrest and robbery since being deported to Lagos.

With no papers and no money, he was detained by the Nigerian police until a fellow inmate gave him the money for a bribe to secure his release.

"I had nowhere to go. When I was walking around I ran into some gangsters, who thought I had money on me. I was attacked and molested."

"My clothes were torn, I was starving and I had no medication for the injuries I had sustained."

Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins then intervened. He wired Mr Eluhanla €200 and put him in touch with local socialist organisers who have given the student food and shelter.

Last night, Mr Higgins claimed the State had behaved in a "criminal" manner by "snatching" a student preparing for his Leaving Cert and deporting him without due process.

Rosanna Flynn of Residents against Racism called for the return of all 35 Nigerian nationals who were removed from the country last week.

"These deportations were done in a terrible manner, with students taken away from their studies and mothers not even given a chance to pick up their children from school."

Neil Burke, a classmate of Mr Eluhanla who is leading the campaign to have the deportation reversed, said his friend was very distressed when he arrived in Lagos. "He was very distraught and told me he was going to kill himself. But now he had food and a roof over his head and he is more settled."

He described Mr Eluhanla as a "much-loved member of the class" and said his deportation had affected the Leaving Cert preparations of his colleagues.