Supporters of a mother who fears that her two daughters will be subjected to female genital mutilation in her native Nigeria believe that she was deported on Tuesday despite a last-ditch bid by her legal team to block the move and the signing of a petition by more than 125,000 people.
Afusat Saliu, 31, and her two daughters Bassy, four, and Rashidat, two, had been given an overnight reprieve last week after they were detained and transported from their home in Leeds to London for removal.
Lawyers for Saliu had launched a judicial review in an attempt to keep the three of them in Britain, while 125,000 people had signed a petition demanding that the Home Office reconsider the case.
Bhumika Parmar, of BP Legal, said that she had submitted a request on Monday asking that Saliu be allowed to continue with the judicial review. However, she had been unable to reach Saliu client on her mobile last night and believed that she had been put on a flight to Nigeria.
Parmar added: “Over the last few days we have been working and fighting desperately and tried every avenue for the Government to hear her case but it seems they are determined to send her back.
“It’s been a very tough few days for Afusat and her daughters and you can just imagine how vulnerable they are and how they have been affected by this ongoing saga.
Saliu fled to the UK in 2011 while she was heavily pregnant after her stepmother threatened to subject her daughter Bassy to the cutting. Her youngest daughter was born in Britain.
The 31-year-old, who is herself a victim of female genital mutilation, has said that she fears her daughters will also be mutilated and spoken of her fear that, as Christians, they could be targeted by the Nigerian Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, which recently kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls.
Parmar said that Saliu would still have out-of-country appeal rights, even if she was in Nigeria, and that BP Legal would be launching a new legal proceedings as early as this week.