A Nigerian student Nonso Muojeke in Ireland’s Tullamore has expressed relief over his deportation being revoked. Fourteen-year-old Muojeke and his family faced deportation to Nigeria despite living in Ireland since he was two-years-old.
This comes after the Department of Justice confirmed on Wednesday that his plea against the deportation has been accepted, giving him permission to live in the state.
On Friday, Nonso told the Irish Times that he was ‘happy and overwhelmed’ upon hearing the news.
“I didn’t really expect it to come so soon, I would have expected another year or two. When I heard it at 1 o’clock in the morning, my mom woke me up just to tell me, she was so happy, she kept on talking about it, she was texting Joe and Ann and all the people who supported us.”Nonso Muojeke, Irish Student from Nigeria
“I was mostly thinking about what’s going to happen now, what’s going to happen in my future? We’ve been reading the documents, how we have to go through everything to finally solidify the residency process,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
Nonso’s family moved to Tullamore, Co Offaly in 2007 after fleeing from Nigeria, according to the Irish Times report.
Earlier this year, a petition signed by over 20,000 people was sent to the Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan, urging him to grant clemency.
Nonso said he had been worried about his family, but now he feels “super happy that they don’t have to worry about this any more.”
Artist Joe Caslin, who is a teacher at Tullamore College, where Nonso is a student, told the Irish Times that the campaign had provided “incredible lessons for students, staff and the whole community”.
“We wanted to keep this boy and his family in the community, he had been part of the school community for seven years, we felt that an incredible injustice was taking place and we were united, we stood behind this simple cause. It was one the greatest lessons that our students learned last year and this year, that they can make an impact, that a simple thing, if you follow it through that you have a voice, that’s a life lesson for our kids.”Joe Caslin, Artist
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