Jumoke Adediwura deported, Birmingham campaigners fear

Mar 7 2008 By Jasbir Authi

A NIGERIAN mother-of-two who has been fighting to stay in Birmingham has been deported, her campaigners fear.

Jumoke Adediwura, aged 35, is thought to have been flown back to to Nigeria after a long campaign by her many supporters to keep her in the country failed.

Ms Adediwura, who has lived in Kings Heath since 2003, was taken to Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedford last Friday March with her two daughters - disabled Elizabeth, aged three and two-year-old Daniella.

Her supporters claim her phone went dead around the same time she was due to board a plane bound for Nigeria on Thursday morning.

The Home Office refused to confirm to the Birmingahm Mail that Ms Adediwura had been deported.

Ms Adediwura claims she fled Nigeria in 2003 after suffering abuse from her family after she converted from Islam to Christianity.

She maintains there was no treatment for her daughter in her Nigerian village and the highly religious community regarded her disability as punishment from God.

Mother-of-three Holly Nolan, aged 49, from Kings Heath, who set up a website to raise awareness about the familyÕs case, said: "IÕm absolutely devastated. All her supporters feel as though no one listened to us or cared.

"She would have been treated better if she had been a criminal.

"She was a Christian lady who went to Church twice a week. She was a lovely lady, who showed great humility and right to the end she was thanking everybody for the love they had shown her."

Mrs Nolan said her supporters were still awaiting official confirmation of her deportation and were struggling to come to terms with the fact that she may have been sent back.

A Border and Immigration Agency spokesman said: "We examine with great care each individual case and will only return those people who asylum decision makers and independent appeal judges have found do not need international protection and who can therefore return safely to their home country."