Now Irish police insisted that the Nigerian who was bleeding as a result of a miscarriage in recent weeks was medically assessed as being fit to be deported.
However, controversy was to come following the manner in which Olayinka Ijaware, a mother of two, was being prepared for deportation to Nigeria on Tuesday night. The flight was later canceled without explanation.
Ijaware was brought to the Rotunda Hospital on Tuesday afternoon after suffering bleeding linked to an apparent miscarriage.
Supporters of the the Nigerian woman had said on Tuesday that the miscarriage occurred just hours before she was due to be deported. However, the woman said yesterday the miscarriage had occurred last month after almost eight weeks of pregnancy, but she had suffered bleeding and complications over recent weeks.
After being treated in the Rotunda on Tuesday, the doctor who dealt with her wrote a letter advising caution over her condition. “To whom it concerns, the above named patient is unfit for air travel if she is actively bleeding per vagina. If you have queries, please do not hesitate to contact us,” the letter said.
A spokeswoman for the immigration said that while she did not wish to comment on Ijaware’s case, she said it was the police's policy to ensure that anyone facing deportation was in a fit condition to fly.
“We would not place anyone on a flight that is not certified as fit to travel,” she said.
In this case, it is understood that the Garda National Immigration Bureau had a doctor at the airport who assessed Ijaware as fit to travel, as reported yesterday.
Ijaware, who has two children aged four and seven, has been living in Tramore, Co Waterford, for about four years.
While her application for asylum was refused, she is considering taking judicial review proceedings against her deportation.
Groups representing asylum seekers yesterday criticised the circumstances of the way she was deported.
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