Stop Racist Deportations
Protestors gathered yesterday (Monday) outside Belfast City Hall to show their disgust at the British government’s maltreatment of Comfort Adefowoju and her four children, whose imminent deportation to Africa was only delayed by the incompetence of British officials.
Comfort and her children one of whom, Sarah, was born in Ireland, were residents of Belfast until their arrest and detention by immigration officers and the RUC-PSNI. They were taken on Monday night from their beds in the Yards Wood detention centre in England at 3.30am and transported to an undisclosed airport to be deported to Nigeria.
The family’s deportation was only prevented when it was realised that the British government had neglected to buy a plane ticket for Ms Adefowoju’s youngest daughter.
Belfast protest against racist deportation of Comfort and her children
Under British immigration law the Nigerian family is to be deported, despite the constant claims that deportation could be the equivalent of a death sentence for her and, possibly, her family. The British Government has shown no signs of relenting thus far and Anti-Racism activists are continuing to lobby and raise awareness around the issue.
Comfort and her family fled Nigeria for Ireland when her husband fell foul of localised leaders in their home town, receiving threats that they would harm his family.
Fionola Meridith of the Adefowoju family support group claimed that there were no grounds for deportation and appealed for mercy from the British Government.
She said, “It makes no sense that the (British) Home Office is pushing ahead with her removal when she has so much support in her Belfast community and all the compelling evidence from Nigeria. What harm are Comfort and her young children doing?”
Campaigners have called for individuals and organisations to petition the British Home Office on behalf of the distraught family, who have lived in incarceration since being abducted by Crown Forces from their home in Ireland.
Éirígí chairperson Brian Leeson was scathing of the attempts to deport the family and encouraged activists everywhere to support them in whatever way they can.
“We must to commend the activists who organised and joined today’s protest in Belfast. It is only through exposing the draconian and racist nature of British immigration policy that we can create enough momentum for change in regards to how asylum seekers specifically and immigrants generally are treated under British rule in the North and under Leinster House’s domain in the Twenty-Six Counties.
“Both establishments show a flagrant disregard for the rights of human beings in the face of inflexible legislation.
“We must, in the short term, expose and challenge every aspect of anti-human rights policies in both institutions in Ireland. However, in the long term we must make it impossible for the British government to coordinate and abduct people form Irish soil using their surrogates in the RUC-PSNI and the NIO under any circumstances.
“We in Éirígí extend our solidarity to the Adefowoju family and to the political activists fighting on their behalf. We condemn the actions of the British government which have brought misery and incarceration on this young family and demand, along with their supporters, the safe return of Comfort and her children to their Belfast home.”