Updated 09/04/2008

On 31 December 2003, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) Act 2003 came into force in Ireland and, amongst other matters, required all organs of this State to perform their functions in a manner compatible with the ECHR.  This means  that  decision-makers must carry out their duties in full accordance with the ECHR.

In this piece I will attempt to examine how the Deptartment of Justice, Equality and Law Reform (DOJELR) have applied this important human rights legislation in dealing with the application for subsidiary protection from Pamela, Naomi and Jemima.

• Firstly, one would expect that life-threatening decisions, such as applications from aslyum-seekers, would be considered by appropriate officials with the requisite seniority and experience, and not by a lower ranking executive officer.  The wording used in the European Communities (Eligibility for Protection) Regulations 2006  imply that the Minister has a major role to play in considering these cases, rather than an executive officer.
  
  
• The DOJELR refused to give an undertaking to Gabrial Toolan, solicitor for Pamela, Naomi and Jemima, not to deport them, pending her legal team's consideration of their options following Justice Feeney's decision to refuse to grant them leave to appeal his decision to the Supreme Court.   It was only through an emergency sitting of the High Court on Thursday, 20th March, that relief was given, when Justice John Edwards granted a judicial review of the DOJELR refusal to consider their application for subsidiary protection and also froze the deportation orders that were about to be enacted upon them.
  

• Following this decision, the DOJELR would not to allow the family to return to Sligo, which was their home for over 3 years, thereby depriving the children of their right to attend school and to have a normal family life.  The DOJELR eventually conceded but expressed concerns of the family contracting the chickenpox virus if returned to Globe House, Sligo, where there was an outbreak and they insisted that Pamela sign and acknowledge a health warning.  However, the previous week, the same Department expressed no concern of the risk of serious harm that awaited the family if they were deported.  Does this show a lack of consistency in the weight of concern given to a non-life-threatening condition such as chickenpox, compared to the far more serious threat of FGM awaiting the family if forcibly deported to Nigeria?
  
  
• One of the grounds on which the DOJELR refused to consider their application was that the deportation order was signed in November 2005 and predated the new 2006 Regulations. The question here is can an organ of the State legitimately deny a person access to legislation and the principles and protections contained therein because of timing?  Does this mean, for example, that if a country abolished the death penalty it would not apply to those already sentenced?  Would that be compatible with the ECHR Act 2003?
  
• The fact the Amnesty International have now publicy expressed their concerns about the safety of forcibly deporting this family highlights the doubts Amnesty have regarding the correctness, from a human rights perspective, of the DOJELR decision.  It is a rare event for Amnesty International to act on behalf of an individual case in democratic Ireland and only do so when a clear breach of fundamental human rights is perceived.   

All concerned now await a date to be given for a full hearing in the High Court, unless the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform chooses to grant them the subsidiary protection himself.  Therefore, our campaign will continue to exert pressure on the Minister to immediately grant them the protection they are seeking justly and not to await possible lengthy proceedings through the High Court. 

Family left living in limbo as suspected 'economic tourists'

Having fled Nigeria to protect her daughters, Pamela finds herself in a very hostile land, writes Antonia Leslie

Pamela Izevbekhai and her two daughters Naomi and Jemima have been in Ireland, fighting for permission to stay, for over three years now.

As they have not been given refugee status and are still in a state of limbo, it is illegal for Pamela to either work or to claim social welfare. For the past three years Naomi, Jemima and Pamela had been living at Globe House refugee centre in Sligo, but after recent deportation attempts, they were moved to Dublin, to Balzeskin Reception/Deportation centre in Ballymun.

Here, like in Globe House, the trio share a room and have no access to a kitchen or their own bathroom and toilet. Despite this cramped and difficult life style, Pamela has done her best to create a homely environment. As she told the court, as long as they are away from the reaches of her in-laws and their extended family, she knows the girls sleep safe in their beds at night. The room in Sligo was damp and and made Jemima's asthma worse and the three meals a day provided in the canteen, were something the girls fussed over and refused to eat. Small children are difficult eaters, as we know. Smells and familiar tastes are all important.

In Sligo the girls have formed deep friendships and have integrated remarkably well into school life, despite difficult living conditions, so Sligo has become their home, with some degree of comfort and stability. For the last two weeks, in the Balzeskin Centre in Dublin, they have been climbing the thin, prefab walls with restlessness and boredom, as they have been unable to go to school. In fact, because of the current status -- that of awaiting deportation -- there is no provision for the girls' schooling in Dublin. Breaches of this condition -- or any other -- could lead to instant arrest and deportation. These conditions are read to them daily.

Back in Sligo, Pamela had a tiny fridge in her room. Normally this is not allowed, but due to Jemima's medication, the state gave in and allowed Pamela to have a fridge. Because of this fridge, Pamela was able to use her weekly €38.30 to buy bread, butter and cheese for the girls. Sometimes she stretched this to include peanut-butter or pot noodles, so she could feed the girls in the room. No disrespect to the catering team in Globe house, it's just that, like I said, kids will be kids.

Luckily for Pamela though, she is well-spoken, highly amusing and really good fun; it's not all gloom and doom. She is resourceful and has proved her openness, wisdom and loyalty as a friend to many a Sligo native, and not just the odd Dubliner like myself. And it because of her sociability, that she had a few Sligo kitchens that are always open to her, not only to come and eat with the family, but to come and cook a decent meal for the kids.

In Sligo, after getting the kids washed, fed and delivered to school, Pamela went to school herself. She hates sitting idle, and has completed various courses, such as digital photography and web design. Pamela at one point was doing 30 hours a week voluntary work for the Sligo Leader Partnership, looking out for disadvantaged, the handicapped and the elderly. She was asked by some gardai in Sligo to join the force, if her asylum application was successful, as part of their scheme to incorporate ethnic minorities. But she says she declined, as she is too big a softy, and would be no good at arresting anyone. She'd let every one go and then there would be anarchy!

Saint Pamela? No, I'm describing somebody who is highly principled, kind and a hard-worker. Back in Nigeria she was the same. She worked hard from the time she left her Irish convent school, until she left her position in a major bank to flee to Ireland. Leaving behind her pretty comfortable and spacious home, complete with house keeper, as well as her beloved husband Tony and her only son Adrian. She speaks to both all the time on the phone, yet has not been allowed to see them for the three years she has been seeking protection in Ireland. Tony, on one occasion, travelled from London, (where he visits for work contracts, for his second-hand computer parts company) to Ireland, to try and see her and the girls, but was stopped and sent back to London.

Maybe Immigration thought that he would try and stay in Ireland illegally, which, even if he wanted to, he couldn't, as he has spent years building his business back in Nigeria and it would fall apart if he left for good. And besides, he would never abandon his other child, Adrian.

When Elizabeth (Pamela's first-born daughter) bled to death after undergoing the ritual of female genital mutilation, Pamela, who had been harangued by Tony's family into allowing this to happen, swore that she would never have any more children. What if they were girls? How could she allow this to ever happen again? The family was big, powerful and determined and she knew it would be hard to go against them. She was already skating on thin ice, as far as they were concerned, due to her uppity non-traditional ways, such as working, and not always obeying her husband or his family.

They told her she was not one of them and was nothing but a breeding cow and should shut up and put up. Tony, thank God, was not of this family-view -- he loved, cherished and respected his wife. They met in their very early 20s and it has been a real Romeo and Juliet love story ever since.

Pamela is from a very different tribal culture and community in Nigeria than Tony, and she hadn't even heard of FGM before she gave birth to Elizabeth. FGM is not widely talked about, even inside the communities that practise it in Nigeria. Tony stood by his wife from the very beginning, yet made the big mistake of giving in to his family over the FGM of Elizabeth. After the child died, he cut all links with them and, four years on, he and Pamela were in serious discussion and emotional argument over whether to break the no-more-children vow. Pamela made a decision and it was this: If Tony promised her that he would protect her and any more girls that she might bear, with his life, she would have more children. Tony promised without hesitation and took that promise very seriously.

When Pamela had Naomi and then two years later Jemima, her in-laws extended an olive branch and asked for a truce, with no mention of FGM at the beginning. Pamela, for Tony's sake, resumed strained relations with her them, but soon the subject of FGM came up again. When could they get the girls cut? Pamela's mother-in-law would organise the whole thing, as she did with Elizabeth, whose death, she told Pamela, was God's will.

Pamela declined and voiced her outrage at the mere suggestion. This is where all the trouble began. Pamela and Tony moved house, but the in-laws soon found them. They used to gather outside the couple's home, throwing sticks and rocks up at the windows, shouting that Pamela was a prostitute and raising two little prostitutes as daughters. Then came the abduction attempts, first from the girls' creche, then from the street and, finally, breaking into the apartment that Tony and Pamela had moved to, beating up the maid and lying in wait for the kids to return from school. Luckily, the neighbours heard the ruckus and contacted Tony, who still bears scars on his face from the ensuing fight.

Tony would fight to the death like any father to save his children, but it is not possible to be with then 24/7 and how many people could he fend off next time? As for the police, the Federal police do not get involved in FGM disputes, just as some European police forces used to treat domestic disputes 20 years ago. Also, Tony's father was a respected high-ranking officer in the Nigerian army.

It got to the point where Tony and Pamela could not let the kids go out and play in the garden for fear of abduction. Pamela gave up her job in the bank to be at home and try and protect them. Tony eventually thought, "right, enough is enough". He contacted a trafficker and raised the money to have Pamela and the kids taken to Ireland. Illegally, I know, but who would blame him?

Tony, Pamela and the kids all held visitors' visas to the UK, but Tony has a large extended family there and on a hasty decision decided, wrongly or rightly, who knows, against sending his wife and children to the UK. One of his female cousins who was born in the UK was sent back to Nigeria last summer for "a holiday" and taken by the family and "cut". There is a very big Nigerian Community in the UK. The British home office estimates that there have been up to 66,000 illegal FGMs, preformed in secret within the African community on British soil last year alone. The problem of FGM is not confined to the African Continent.

Meanwhile, back here in Ireland, Pamela has another restless night, in her prefab room in Balzeskin centre, wondering what Justice Minister Brian Lenihan will decide. Wondering if she will get a sympathetic judge the next time she appears in court. Then comes the call from Tony and she forgets for a while where she is and why she is here; lost for a while in soothing sweet talk and romantic notions.

She describes the burning in her heart when Tony finally hangs up. She lies there fretting, full of all the doubts that any woman would have if her husband was alone and without his wife in the marital bed for three years. If she continued this line of thought, she would drive herself crazy, so she stops and focuses on her slumbering girls.

"Tony is a loyal man and devoted father," she says. But even he is cracking up under the pressure of not being able to be there for his daughters and be a flesh and blood husband to his wife. He yearns to be able to visit them from time to time, to see and touch his family. Adrian, who has grown into adolescence without his mother or his sisters, naturally wants the same.

Tony, who is a proud man, feels helpless that he can't do anything to relieve their burden and the stress and strain that they continue to endure alone, in a strange and sometimes incredibly hostile land.

Sunday March 23 2008

Justice can't be blind this time

The failure to protect two Nigerian children from mutilation would be a travesty, writes Antonia Leslie

I've regained my faith in the Irish justice system. For a good while during the legal battle waged on behalf of Pamela Izevbekhai and her daughters, Naomi, 7, and Jemima, 5), I thought we'd reverted back to some stone age system where evidence wasn't allowed and witness testimony could not be taken into consideration. The only evidence that the High Court could consider was that which had been available in 2005 -- when Pamela applied for asylum and was refused due, I guess, to lack of evidence.

I first met Pamela in February 2006 when I was doing a story about her plight for this newspaper. I was given the birth cert and a death cert of her first-born daughter Elizabeth, who died as a result of female circumcision. I also had a copy of the medical report. I found a hospital name and phone number on all these documents, and the signature of a doctor who attended both her birth and death. The same doctor's name was on all the relevant documents. I called the number in Nigeria, a bit apprehensive as to whether it would be valid 12 years on. To my surprise, it was.

The doctor was co-operative and remembered Pamela and the tragic death of Elizabeth. He said he knew the family well and said Mrs Izevbekhai senior (Pamela's mother-in-law), was determined, with the aid of some of her powerful family, to perform female genital mutilation (FGM) on the girls. He corroborated Pamela's story fully and said she was at risk of reprisal for dishonouring the family.

He also went on to express his opposition to FGM, which he claimed was still prevalent among 60 per cent of the population. He said it was a die-hard tradition, and, despite the opposition of the Nigerian Parliament, was still widely practised. The government could not protect people like Pamela, and neither could the police. He said the only way forward was education, and that it would take about 25 years before the practice could be stamped out.

He believed that Pamela and her children would be in serious danger if returned to Nigeria. He told me that Mrs Izevbekhai senior, had come to him before and asked him to perform the procedure on other children. He had refused.

Coincidentally, he said, a gentleman from the HSE in Ireland had called him the same day as I did, to verify that he was a real doctor and that his hospital existed. I asked him had anybody from immigration or the Department of Justice or anyone else from Ireland ever tried to contact him before. He said no.

The doctor wrote to both myself and the HSE rep, explaining the situation about FGM in Nigeria and corroborating Pamela's personal story. He also sent affidavits to her legal team.

A month later, I got a phone call from him; he was incredibly distressed. He said he had been visited by "agents of the Nigerian state" and had been directly threatened. He asked me never to contact him again and said he would deny all knowledge of Pamela if he was contacted further.

Amnesty International has now taken up Pamela's case as a high priority. Last week, the Department of Justice -- in the name of the Minister for Justice, Brian Lenihan, who is abroad -- declined to make a Subsidiary Protection Order, Pamela's apparent last chance to avoid the deportation of herself and her two daughters.

But her legal team went back to court to seek another stay of execution on the deportation order. There was relief all round when Judge John Edwards found that Pamela fitted not just one of the criteria needed for a protection order, but five.

I hope and pray that Mr Lenihan will take a fresh look at Pamela's case. What in the name of God has this woman done to offend the State? She's just a mum who wants to keep her children safe. Once all the evidence is looked at, I'm confident that truth will prevail. Justice will be served. The minister will come out of this looking just and equitable.

Two little girls will not face almost certain mutilation and possible death. And the years of fear and uncertainty will end for their dignified and courageous mother.

• Deportation halted of mum and children, Tuesday, March 25, 2008, Link
• Review granted in Izevbekhai deportation case Thursday, 20 March 2008 Link
• Nigerian mum pleas for child abuse probe - Wednesday, January 04, 2006 Link
• Welcome shows big hearts of Sligo people says grateful Pamela - Tuesday, January 31, 2006 Link
• Nigerian woman and children report to deportation centre this morning - Wednesday, Mar 19,2008 12:45 am Link
• Mum faces deportation despite child mutilation claim - Friday March 14 2008 Link
• Izevbekhai supporters to fight deportation - 19 March 2008 15:54 Link
• Hope fades fast as deportation looms - Wednesday March 19 2008 Link
• Female deportees 'fear mutilation and sexual slavery' - Saturday September 03 2005 Link
• Nigerian woman and daughters facing deportation today - Tuesday March 18 2008 Link
• Minister urged to halt removal of Nigerian family - Wednesday March 19 2008 Link
• Fury at court decision to deport mum and two kids - Tuesday, March 18, 2008 Link
• Pleas for Lenihan to stop removal of Nigerian woman - Wednesday, March 19, 2008 Link
• Nigerian woman seeks injunction to halt deportation - Thursday, March 20, 2008 Link
• No deportation reprieve for frantic mother - Thursday March 20 2008 Link

Useful articles related to FGM

Open with real Player

Wikipedia article on Female Genital Mutilation (Link)

Unicef article (Link)

World Health Organization article (Link)

Razor's Edge - The Controversy of Female Genital Mutilation (Link)

A VIDEO RAZOR's EDGE
(http://www.irinnews.org/filmtv.aspx)

A PDF document from UNICEF (www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/fgm-gb-2005.pdf)

Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development Link

Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development FORWARD Link

Minister for Justice, Mr. Brian Lenihan TD - 016028384 or 018220970 or Email (click here)

Contact us - petitionforpamela@yahoo.ie