Deportation Mother Returns To NI

A woman and her child who face being deported from Northern Ireland back to Cameroon have arrived back in Belfast.

Lordorice Djountso and her daughter Imelda, who was born in Belfast, were moved from NI to a detention centre in Bedfordshire two months ago.

MPs Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein, the UUP’s Lady Sylvia Hermon and the SDLP’s Alasdair McDonnell met the pair at Belfast International Airport.

Ms Djountso faces another deportation hearing on 22 June.

Close friend and campaigner Cassie McKeever was at the airport to welcome the mother and daughter home.

She said: “We are absolutely delighted she is home. She is going back to the house she had lived in south Belfast for the last two years.”

She said now Ms Djountso was back in Northern Ireland, there were various organisations which could get involved in her case and the battle to prevent her deportation.

“We are fairly confident that the constant attention to her case can postpone her deportation for some time – hopefully permanently,” Ms McKeever added.

Ms Djountso, who sought asylum after fleeing Cameroon in 2005 following the murder of two family members in a dispute with a local tribal chief, said she was delighted to be back in Belfast.

“I am very happy, I am just so very happy to be back – I am looking forward to going back to my home,” she added.