Until November 30, 2007, Comfort Adefowoju and her family lived happily in Belfast, Northern Ireland. But around 6.30a.m. on the fateful day, some immigration officers came to wake them from their bed and reportedly took them in caged vans from Glasgow to Yarl‘s wood detention centre outside London.



According to a UK-based independent media centre network, Indymedia Ireland, the centre is regarded as the most notorious detention centre in Britain.

The agency says the centre is usually overcrowded and the scene of regular riots.

“The older children were separated from their mother on the journey, though they‘re now reunited behind bars. They‘ve now been held in prison, effectively, for over two weeks and will be there indefinitely,” it adds.

Adefowoju said she and her family could be killed if they were sent back to Nigeria.

She said her husband had been forced to flee the country following a disagreement with some business partners who harrassed and threatened to kill him.

After the husband had fled, she said ethnic militias constantly harrassed and threatened to burn down her house with her children. As a result, she relocated to the UK following her husband’s advice.

Adefowoju, who relocated to UK with her family in 2006, reportedly says, “They’ve done a lot of harm to people and I can’t wait there for them to kill me and my children.

Adefowoju‘s ‘mistake‘ was that she didn‘t apply for asylum as soon as she entered the Northern Ireland. By implication, she and her children have become illegal aliens and ought to be deported to Nigeria.

“Now the authorities have imprisoned a mother and four young children, and want to deport them to Nigeria where their lives may be under threat,” the agency says.

In what appears to be a battle between law and morality, the Home Office says Adefowoju and her children do not qualify to remain in the UK under the country’s immigration law. It says her only option now is to apply on grounds of compassion, which is what her friends now wish to help her do.

Another Nigerian, Aderonke Falode, a widow, and her three children, face a similar deportation threat. She says if deported, she will either face a forced marriage or lose everything she owned on her return to Nigeria.

But the Home Office says that Ronke‘s fear of returning home is based on a local family dispute. It also says that although she claims to have been pressurised by her husband‘s family since her husband’s death in 2003, at no point did this pressure result in violence or any specific act of persecution against her. The harassment she claims to have suffered would not breach any threshold for regarding it as serious harm. Besides, the Home Office believes it is reasonable that she simply relocates to another part of Nigeria to escape the family‘s attentions.

They also say that Nigerian law will protect widows in Ronke‘s situation and that, that claim does not invoke a need for international protection and does not demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution.

They say that Ronke has not been able to prove that she qualifies for asylum; she has not shown substantial grounds for believing that she faces a real risk of suffering serious harm on return from the UK so she does not qualify for Humanitarian Protection. They have concluded that removing this family from the UK or requiring them to leave would not be contrary to the UK‘s obligations under the ECHR,” the Home Office reportedly says.

Speaking from Yarl‘s Wood last Friday, Ronke was quoted by Indymedia Ireland as saying, ”The guards came for me and the children at 2.00 a.m. this morning, the children were still asleep. They asked me to wake the children and said they would give me 30 minutes to pack my belongings. I didn‘t wake the children and when they came back I said I was not leaving. They threatened to handcuff me; I said I would not let them. They tried to persuade me to go to the airport and resist there if I wanted to, but I didn‘t; I sat tight. So, we are still here but don‘t know what happens next.”

Last Wednesday, the Alliance Party of Ireland organised a protest to drum up support for the Nigerian families.

At the protest, the party‘s Deputy Leader, Naomi Long, MLA, called for the Home Office to let two families that are facing deportation stay in Belfast because their lives could be put at risk if they return. She backed her call and said that the local community here would also be devastated if the families were deported.

The Alliance Party organised the protest along with campaigners against the potential deportations.

The party’s local MLA in East Belfast, Naomi Long, says, ”It‘s time that the UK government handled immigration in a more sensitive and compassionate way, and took into account the abuse which can face people at the hands of their culture and community as well as at the hands of their governments.

”The arrest and detention of women and children in prison is an ordeal which they should not have to face. At such a difficult time in their lives, they are being removed from their friends and supporters, are isolated and being treated like criminals rather than people seeking safe place to raise their young families from persecution and abuse.

”Comfort and her family‘s lives could be placed in real danger if they are deported. Not only that, her children‘s education will also be put in jeopardy. They have all settled in very well in Belfast and are members of a local church and attend clubs and schools in the area.

”Aderonke Falode must also be allowed to stay in Northern Ireland. Forced marriages are not acceptable in the UK and the immigration authorities should not be returning women to the certainty of facing this kind of sexual and mental abuse in their home country. To force someone to choose between being subjected to a forced marriage and losing their children is inhumane and this country should not be complicit in this abuse.”

”These families have come to Northern Ireland and have integrated well into the community in East Belfast. They have made new lives together and are active members of their local church and school communities, which is evident in the level of support they have received from the local community.”

South Belfast Alliance MLA, Anna Lo, says, ”The deportation of both these families would be a devastating blow. It could potentially put their lives at risk.

”The families have a large number of friends, and the whole community would be devastated if they are not allowed to stay. The Home Office should take notice of the community‘s support for Aderonke and Comfort and make the right decision. Let’s hope today‘s demonstration delivers the right result.”

But a temporary reprieve came for Adefowoju and her children who were due to be deported last Sunday.

According to the BBC on Sunday, they have been allowed to remain in the UK until their legal appeal is settled.

On Saturday night, Adefowoju was told she could stay until an application for a judicial review into her case was lodged.

Adefowoju’s minister at Mountpottinger Presbyterian Church, Rev Johnston Lambe, spoke to her after she heard about the reprieve.

“She‘s delighted but recognises again that this is only a short stay,” Lambe said.

“The possibility is there, if the judicial appeal fails, that she may well again be removed from Yarlswood.”

Why they end in this situation of uncertainty?

because they dont believe in following the rules of law.