Nigerian mother loses fight to halt deportation from Ireland

Nigernian mother-of-two Pamela Izevbekhai has vowed to continue her fight to prevent her deportation from Ireland after her defeat in the Supreme Court. Izevbekhai, who claims her daughters Naomi (9) and Jemima (8) face genital mutilation if they are deported to her native Nigeria, is "looking forward" to having her case heard before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Izevbekhai exhausted all of her legal options in Ireland after a five-year legal battle that her new lawyer says will lead to "quite phenomenal" costs. The Supreme Court, in a majority four-to-one decision, ruled on a legal issue over whether she and her daughters were entitled to an EU protection brought into Irish law in 2006 - after their deportation was ordered. The court rejected her claims that Justice Minister Dermot Ahern was obliged to reconsider her application. The ruling comes as the courts prepare to clear a 550-strong backlog of asylum and immigration cases. Six-out-of-10 judicial review actions in the courts are asylum-related according to Ahern. In 2008, the ECHR asked the Government not to deport Pamela Izevbekhai until her case was heard at the Strasbourg Court. A decision on whether the ECHR will deport Izevbekhai is expected in the coming months.