One year on — Bring back Great’s family

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Tuesday August 05, 2008 18:57 by Residents Against Racism rar.info at yahoo dot ie c/o 12A Brunswick Place, Dublin 2 087 6662060 or 087 7974622

Protest
Garda National Immigration Bureau
Burgh Quay, Dublin (opposite Liberty Hall)
1 pm, Thursday 14 August

On 14 August last year, the government deported a six-year-old autistic boy along with his mother and sister. Great Agbonlahor had been living in Ireland for over four years with his mother Olivia and his twin sister Melissa. Since being diagnosed with autism, he had received the education and therapy he needs. But the family were deported to Nigeria, even though the children had never set foot in Africa. In Nigeria, Great has no way of getting the treatment he needs. In fact, he has been dealt with as an outcast, and his family as if they were ‘possessed by devils’.

Thousands of people around Ireland signed petitions calling on the Minister for Justice to let Great and his family stay. People from all walks of life supported him. The Minister for Justice still has the power to reverse the deportation order. A year on, call on the government to bring back Great’s family, and introduce an asylum policy based on respecting the human rights of people fleeing from poverty and oppression.