UPDATE: Last minute reprieve for Laois African family facing deportation

A last minute change of heart by the Department of Justice could mean a Laois African family may avoid deportation while fearing for their lives.

St Mary's CBS Portlaoise and the Edmund Rice Schools Trust (ERST) had pressed the Department to reconsider the case of the Adebowale five brothers and their mother, whose first appeal against deportation had been rejected last December.

The family have also claimed that their mother has received death threats from their father and his family back in Nigeria if they return. 

The school is now planning to start a petition campaign to support the family's legal appeal.

Both the school and ERST have welcomed the decision to allow a second appeal against deportation of their "three promising students".  

St Mary’s CBS, Portlaoise and the Edmund Rice Schools Trust (ERST) have welcomed a decision made on Tuesday, January 7, by the Department of Justice to allow a second appeal against the proposed deportation of the three Adebowale brothers and their family.

The three older brothers – Star, Greatness and Value – are all students in St Mary’s CBS, Portlaoise and together with their mother, Lucy, and their younger brothers, Prosperity and Gold, they were informed before Christmas that their initial appeal against a deportation order had been refused.

Maura Murphy, St Mary’s CBS Principal, said that the school community in St Mary’s was shocked at the decision to refuse the initial appeal by these three young people and the rest of their family.

“However, we very much welcome yesterday’s decision to enable the Adebowale family to make a second appeal and we will shortly be commencing a petition campaign to enable the wider public in Portlaoise and further afield to express their support for this appeal,” Ms Murphy said.

She had told the Leinster Express / Laois Live about the urgent case ahead of the family's meeting with the department of emigration on January 7, saying if another appeal was not allowed, they would be "literally on a plane".

Ms Murphy said that the whole school, who have already fundraised for the family's legal bill, are prepared to march on the Dáil. Read more here.

Gerry Bennett ERST CEO said that the Trust sees the matter as an educational wellbeing issue.

“From an educational wellbeing point of view, it is so important that Star Adebowale gets to sit his Leaving Cert next June and his two brothers get to complete their Leaving Cert and Junior Cycle exams and profile in 2026 respectively. This is why we in ERST are supporting St Mary’s campaign to ask the authorities to favourably consider the Adebowale family’s appeal against deportation,” Mr Bennett concluded.