Alabi Ayinde is in a coma in a Lagos hospital in Nigeria after being brutally deported from Ireland. As far as is known, all Ayinde's injuries were inflicted by Irish immigration guards.
On March 28, Ayinde and five other Nigerians were put on a private charter flight to Lagos, accompanied by around 20 Irish immigration guards. On arrival in Lagos, the six were handed over to Nigerian immigration officials and taken to prison.
At the prison, the governor refused to accept Ayinde as it was obvious that he had been beaten up and was unconscious. Ayinde was taken to a nearby hospital. He remains there surrounded by prison guards.
Ayinde was first assaulted by Irish immigration guards on March 11 after he lost his final appeal against deportation. The decision was bizarre — Ayinde has an Irish son and the parents of Irish-born children cannot be deported. On March 12, Ayinde, five other Nigerians and two Algerians began a hunger strike in Mountjoy prison.
Attempts to deport some of the hunger strikers on March 21 failed when they resisted. Immigration guards attacked the detainees and among others Ayinde sustained further injuries.
Another attempt to deport Ayinde and the others took place on March 28. This time, the Irish authorities hired a private plane and brought in extra immigration guards. According to reports, all six detainees were forcibly removed from Mountjoy prison and taken to the plane.
[From the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns. Visit <http://www.ncadc.org.uk>.]
From Green Left Weekly, April 10, 2002.
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