The High Court has granted a temporary injunction stopping the deportation of a Co Sligo-based Nigerian woman who was arrested last night after over a month in hiding.
Pamela Izbekhai, a mother of two young girls, went into hiding after immigration officers acting on a deportation order arrived at the Globe House centre in Sligo to pick her up.
Her application for asylum was refused.
Ms Izbekhai claims her two daughters, aged five and three, will be subjected to female genital mutilation if the family is forced to return to Nigeria.
Her first daughter bled to death in 1994 at the age of 19 months after undergoing the procedure.
Ms Izbekhai is being held at Mountjoy Women's prison and was not in court for today's brief application by her counsel Laurence Masterson.
The injunction was granted until Monday week pending the outcome of a judicial review application.
