Please act, dubliners.
This is a true story, unfortunately.
And, if you're in Dublin right now, I'm asking your help.
A friend of a friend has been arrested because she went underground following a deportation order. She is being deported because the Irish government cannot find a valid reason to give her asylum.
Her reason for coming here from Nigeria was that her eldest child died from female genital mutilation, and she did not want her other daughters to meet a similar fate. The Irish government, like most EU countries, do not recognise the risk of female genital mutilation as a reason to grant asylum - although it's clear that lives can be at risk from the process - be it during the surgery itself, afterwards, or simply the refusal to have the procedeure carried out can make an entire nigerian family a target for murder.
So, some friends are organising a protest to draw the media, and send the message that Female Genital Mutilation is life threatening and is grounds for asylum in Ireland to the Minister for Justice.
There will surely be other protests, the media have more or less picked up on the story, but we need to act fast as Pamela is facing deportation, to a fate we cannot know, in only one week...
If you are in Dublin and you'd like to help, please join at Trinity at 5pm on Tuesday, we'll then go together to Mountjoy Prison at 6pm. Please forward this to whoever you think can be involved.
For other info, contact me.
Update - The news from the newspapers and websites:
And, if you're in Dublin right now, I'm asking your help.
A friend of a friend has been arrested because she went underground following a deportation order. She is being deported because the Irish government cannot find a valid reason to give her asylum.
Her reason for coming here from Nigeria was that her eldest child died from female genital mutilation, and she did not want her other daughters to meet a similar fate. The Irish government, like most EU countries, do not recognise the risk of female genital mutilation as a reason to grant asylum - although it's clear that lives can be at risk from the process - be it during the surgery itself, afterwards, or simply the refusal to have the procedeure carried out can make an entire nigerian family a target for murder.
So, some friends are organising a protest to draw the media, and send the message that Female Genital Mutilation is life threatening and is grounds for asylum in Ireland to the Minister for Justice.
There will surely be other protests, the media have more or less picked up on the story, but we need to act fast as Pamela is facing deportation, to a fate we cannot know, in only one week...
If you are in Dublin and you'd like to help, please join at Trinity at 5pm on Tuesday, we'll then go together to Mountjoy Prison at 6pm. Please forward this to whoever you think can be involved.
For other info, contact me.
Update - The news from the newspapers and websites:
- Irish Times - 30/12 (PDF format)
- Irish Times - 13/1 (PDF format)
- Irish Times - 13/1 (PDF format)
- Irish Times - 14/1 (PDF format)
- Irish Indipendent (PDF format)
- RTE News (PDF format)
- Ocean FM (PDF format)
- Ireland On Line (PDF format)
- Indymedia.ie
- Labour.ie (PDF format)
- UTV (PDF format)