Published 27th Jul, 2023

Four Nigerian siblings and their mother have been deported from Germany to Nigeria.

According to Spiegel, a German news website, the family were deported by the state of Bavaria, southern Germany, in May, following the rejection of their asylum applications in 2016.

While enforcing the deportation order against the Nigerians, the German police forcefully entered the apartment of Godsand, Victor, Miracolo, Victoria and their mother, Bose Ovbiagele, on the evening of May 15.

the deported Ovbiagele's family — The Ovbiageles

“The police officers came into my room at night and woke me up,” said 11-year-old Godsand, the youngest of the Nigerian children.

“I was shaking. They said: ‘You will be deported. Pack your things, but only what you can manage.’ We weren’t allowed to talk to mommy. We were afraid. I heard Victoria cry in her room.”

On May 16, the family of five were placed on a chartered deportation flight and flown to Lagos, Nigeria, from Frankfurt, Germany.

The Ovbiageles had travelled to Germany seeking a better life nine years ago, after Bose’s first husband died and she separated from her second husband.

In June, about 60 people, who happen to be friends of the family, protested in the city of Kempfen in Bavaria on their behalf with banners, saying ‘Bring the Ovbiagele family back!’

Before the deportation incident, the state of Bavaria had been criticised in February for its increasingly volatile deportation policy, and for what now appears to be the incessant expulsion of immigrant families with children.

The family are still trying to fight for their return to Germany with the help of a lawyer.

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