Ben’s Deportation Order Revoked

Bernie & Benjamin

t was a deportation case that made it all the way to the Dáil…

Back in December, Jennifer Whitmore TD raised the plight of Wicklow man Benjamin Akhile. 

And now, he and his partner of seven year, Bernie D’Arcy, have received confirmation that the deportation will not go ahead.

“I was on my way into SuperValu, when I got the call from Ben’s lawyer,” says Bernie, who works at the Charlesland branch of the supermarket chain. “He had just received an email from the Department of Justice. I’d say people thought I’d gone mad. I was crying, bawling my eyes out. I had to keep on asking was it real…”

When she phoned her partner, he too kept on asking if it was real, that the email was definitely for him. “I said, yes, the email is for you!”

Having received an instruction nine years ago to present for deportation to Sierra Leone, it was after Whitmore brought the matter to Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s attention that a stay on such actions during the pandemic was announced. And now the deportation order has been revoked.

“It’s hard for it to sink in,” Bernie told The Bray People, “so I haven’t researched the next steps yet. We’re just taking it all in and absorbing it, but it’s massively welcome good news.”

With Ben due to have a third operation for kidney stones on February 11th, this good news will relieve some of that pain. “At least he’s not down in the dumps and doesn’t have deportation hanging over him,” says Bernie. “He can focus on himself and his health, and get himself built back up again. Ben has such skills that have been sitting dormant and can now be tapped into again. It’s like he’s been reborn; he can live his life…”

Having worked as a journalist in Sierra Leone, and with a degree in mass communication under his belt, the 54-year-old Ben has completed many courses right up to Fetac 6. And now he can finally put those skills to good use, having previously not being permitted to work here. That journalist scrutiny wasn’t welcomed in his native Sierra Leone is one of the reasons Ben came to Ireland 14 years ago. He now plans to write his own story.

“I can’t believe it’s over,” finishes Bernie. “But there are still people in direct provision and it needs to be abolished…”