A MAN DEPORTED by the Irish government on a chartered flight to Nigeria last week has said he has been separated from his family because of the move.

Rasheed Dimeji Ismail is challenging the deportation on the grounds that the State accepted that his wife Basirat and their three daughters faced threats of female genital mutilation if returned to Nigeria – yet he was still sent there.

Rasheed – who is a chairman of a community garden organisation in Clondalkin in Dublin, after coming to Ireland three years ago – was among the 35 people deported to the west African country on the flight. It’s the third such chartered deportation flight in the lifetime of the government.

The 43-year-old was among a group of people deported last week who spoke to The Journal over a Zoom call today.

He said he believes that the deportations are largely down to the government making them a “scapegoat” because of the “far-right and the anti-immigrant protests”.

Rasheed and his solicitor are seeking for Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan to reverse the deportation. They have also expressed serious concern over the welfare of his wife who was receiving hospital treatment for a respiratory condition.

“I need to see my family,” Rasheed said. “After my wife gave birth to my first born, I’ve never missed one week – I was always with them and if I was not with them, I would be with them on the phone.”

He also called on O’Callaghan to come face to face with the men, women and children he had deported. “The minister should see what they are doing to people,” he said.

“My children were doing well in school, I was doing well, my wife was working, I was working before the deportation order. These are the people contributing to the country. We are all human.”

Maeve Murphy, the chief executive of Clondalkin Global Garden where Rasheed volunteered and elected as chairman, told The Journal that it was important to see him returned. She said he was a respected member of the community in Clondalkin, even attending Áras an Uachtaráin last year for an event honouring volunteer groups with the president.

Rasheed and Sabina Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin in 2023.

His wife and three daughters – aged 13, ten and seven – were saved from deportation thanks to a last-minute injunction secured by the family’s solicitor, on grounds that they faced threats of female genital mutilation if returned to Nigeria.

Despite this reprieve for his family, Rashid was still deported as his solicitor could not make an application in time.

Legal challenge

Faisal Sadiq Khan, of FSK Solicitors, said that his firm is contending Rasheed’s deportation on the grounds that it was not in compliance with the spirit of the law and international protection rules.

“His family in the state are also at a greater risk, and they’re not able to look after themselves. His wife is really ill, and she’s not able to look after their children without his help,” Khan said.

Rashid’s efforts to protect his wife and children from female genital mutilation have made him a target of the same groups, Khan said.

“Because of the brutality of the practice and the location where he is at, and the level of political support for that kind of practice, he is a specific target now because of what he had done,” Khan said.

Rasheed would be able to return if the State approves his wife Basirat’s application to remain, but another route exists if the State accepts that his removal and the separation of the family was incorrect.