The Nigerian family at the centre of a recent protest at the Irish Department of Justice in Dublin over an ordered deportation has been deported to South Africa.

Titilayo Oluwakemi Oyekanmi and her sons, Samuel (18), Joseph (14) and Genesis (5) were removed from Ireland on Saturday, having lived in Dublin since 2023, according to the Irish Times.

Ms Oyekanmi, who hails from Nigeria, had relocated to Ireland from South Africa with her sons after heightened xenophobic attacks against Nigerians. 

The family, however, received a deportation order last year after their asylum application was rejected and a subsequent appeal was unsuccessful.

The order provoked a protest by scores of people, including schoolchildren, neighbours and friends, who appealed to the department not to proceed with the deportation, adding that removing the family from the community would affect them negatively.

Many protesters also submitted letters seeking to overturn the deportation decision by the Irish authorities, noting that the Oyekanmi family had contributed positively to the community and appealing for the family to be allowed to continue living in Ireland.

However, the Irish justice department confirmed on Saturday that 63 people, including nine children, were deported to South Africa on a charter flight from Dublin Airport.

The deportees were accompanied by members of Garda Síochána, medical staff, an interpreter and a human rights observer.

Speaking to the Dublin-based paper, Irish Independent, Ms Oyekanmi described the deportation as a sad development.

“Samuel, my first son, is preparing for his Leaving Cert. Taking him out in this stage of his life is going to affect his life and his future, which makes me cry.

“I want my children to be happy, because we had to run away from threats to our lives in South Africa. We escaped kidnapping. That same boy that escaped that kidnapping, now they want to send him back to that same country,” Ms Oyekanmi stated.