Canada deports family back to Nigeria

In spite of a loud outcry, Winifred Agimelen and her three children have been sent back to Nigeria after living in Montreal for six years.

The Canadian government deportation of Winifred Agimelen and her three children to Nigeria Sunday night hit a temporary snag, as it turned out that the mother did not have a necessary Nigerian visa for her third child, who is Canadian.

In spite of the visa issue, the family of four boarded a plane out of Montreal. Agimelen's current husband is a landed immigrant who lives here, but he does not have official custody rights for the Canadian child.

Protesters are decrying the forced deportation, as the order to leave stems from a complicated maze of immigration procedures that will divide the family and possibly subject them to danger in West Africa.

The three children were fathered by her ex-husband. The third was conceived in Nigeria but born in Canada.

Agimelen fled Nigeria after her first husband disappeared, possibly killed by people his father owed money to. She was kidnapped with her children and her daughter was threatened with genital mutilation as part of that affair. She arrived in Montreal six years ago.

The traumatic experience is believed to have the caused psychological damage to her eldest child and led her to flee to Canada.

The woman's lawyer worries that the child will not develop well in Africa.