A DEPORTED Nigerian man separated from his Irish wife says immigration authorities never fully investigated his marriage.
Speaking to Metro Éireann from Lagos, Henry Olabode (38) said that he and wife Gillian (39) contacted the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) after their wedding in early May 2009, informing officials of the marital development.
“Nobody came to ask us questions, and there are a lot of questions they can ask us,” said Henry, who was deported on 3 March.
“It’s so obvious it’s not a sham marriage,” he added.
Henry came to Ireland in 2007 seeking asylum but was rejected and issued with a deportation order in May last year. He said the order followed the couple’s informing the GNIB of the marriage.
The Nigerian man told Metro Éireann he had begun a relationship with his now wife in December 2007, and they have been together since.
Wife Gillian commented: “I met Henry here in Athlone at one of the local pubs, I was on a girlies’ night out and we got talking. He told me straight away he was an asylum seeker, and I didn’t think anything of it.
“I didn’t think anything prejudiced against him, he’s a nice guy, a very genuine and honest person... If he really wanted to get residency he’d have married an eastern European and had his papers in a couple of months, but he didn’t.”
Gillian has two children from a previously relationship – Sophie, 13, who’s at secondary school in Athlone, and 18-year-old Andrew, studying for a music degree at NUI Maynooth – and said Henry had been a constant support to them.
“He’s brilliant with the two children and they love him to bits, he was doing everything a father should do for children, he was going to be in their future.”
The Athlone woman said she has never suspected that the Nigerian man could be using her, and that they had definite plans for the future.
“Time is ticking, at least for me,” she said. “We wanted to have a child together and raise the two kids and a baby like a normal family.”
She added: “He believes in God and believes God will help us. We’re hoping the deportation is revoked and if not, we have to go through the courts. I’m not going to leave him there, he’s my husband.”
Gillian said that Athlone locals have been supportive: “I was out this morning and one man said ‘How are they allowed to do this to ye? It’s not like you were together for only two or three months.’”
Henry, an electrical engineer by profession, is staying with a friend in Lagos, and said: “I’m really missing her, and it’s even difficult to stay in touch.”
Subsequent to his deportation order, the couple employed a solicitor and said the Department of Justice was informed of their marriage.
The department, which does not comment on individual cases, said consideration of a person’s connection to the State is made before deportation orders are issued.
“Consideration is also given to any such person’s rights to private and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and to any relevant Constitutional provisions,” said a spokesperson, who added that any person who has a deportation order against them can apply to the Minister of Justice to have the order revoked.
“However,” the spokesperson continued, “any such application would need to be supported by new facts or circumstances which were not put before the Minister, nor were capable of being put before the Minister, when the decision to deport was made.”
