Something I and many others have been critical about is the high level of discretion accorded to the Minister for Justice in immigration and asylum matters. What is good about ministerial discretion, however, is that it can be exercised positively as well as negatively.
In asking the minister to exercise his discretion positively, I want to write, yet again, about the deserving case of Great Agbonlahor, the little Nigerian boy who won the hearts of his local community – first in Clonakilty, then in Killarney – since he arrived in Ireland five years ago, and who now faces a renewed threat of deportation along with his mother Olivia and sister Melissa.
The Agbonlahors fled to Italy from Nigeria when Olivia’s journalist husband’s life was threatened because of his work investigating drug dealers. Olivia and the children came to Ireland in March 2003 while the husband remained in hiding in Italy. Neither Great nor his sister has ever set foot in Nigeria.
Autism is a pervasive developmental disability that impairs a person’s ability to talk, communicate, learn and get along with others. According to Medical News Today, there are approximately 190,000 children in Nigeria living with this condition. Usually, children with autism have no physical feature that sets them apart from others. Many children with this puzzling condition whose cure and causes are largely unknown are not being identified early in Nigeria. Autism is treatable only via early, individualised and intensive behavioural and educational intervention.
Indeed, since being diagnosed with autism, Great has received the education and therapy he needs in Ireland and is said to be making good progress. By contrast, according to Okey-Martins Nwokolo, the national co-ordinator of Autism Associates and CADD (the Centre for Autism and Developmental Disabilities) in Nigeria, writing in Metro Eireann: “The situation in Nigeria seems to hark back to pre-1943 America, when children with autism were thought to be schizophrenic or mentally retarded, and when maternal deprivation and spiritual causation held sway as explanations for its cause. In many parts of Nigeria today, particularly in rural areas, people with autism are thought to be possessed or evil.”
The legal aspects of this case are complex – it seems that the former Minister for Justice had based his refusal to revoke the deportation order against Great and his family on the belief that Great suffers from ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactiv-ity Disorder), not autism. However, regardless of the legal implications, the new Minister for Justice has the chance to flex his humanitarian muscles, exercise his well-known concern for children, and use the discretion afforded him by the immigration legislation to give Great an opportunity to receive the educational and behavioural attention which might enhance his development.
Olivia and the children have been transferred to the Balseskin reception centre in north Dublin and have to report weekly to the GNIB, from where they might be taken in for deportation, unless the Minister changes his mind. Let me say that this is a unique case – allowing Great to stay does not mean Ireland would be inundated by people with autism knocking on our door. Ireland does not have the best record in terms of caring for Irish people with autism. Contact the Minister and tell him he has a unique opportunity to repair this by reversing the deportation order and allowing this little boy to stay.
Dr Ronit Lentin is head of the MPhil in Ethnic and Racial Studies at the Department of Sociology at Trinity College Dublin. Her column appears fortnightly in Metro Eireann
