Suicide-bid asylum girl released

The Agency says it was an "operational decision".

A 10-year-old failed asylum seeker who tried to commit suicide while in detention has been released by the UK Border Agency.

Adeoti Ogunsola and her mother Clementina were granted conditional temporary release from an immigration removal centre near Gatwick Airport.

The pair, from Nigeria, can now appeal against their deportation which was due to take place on 22 October.

Adeoti had tried to strangle herself at the Tinsley House centre near Gatwick.

Three days earlier Adeoti had been moved from her aunt's house to the centre in anticipation that she and her mother would be flown back to Nigeria.

By law, because the girl has been released from detention she is now entitled to challenge her removal from the UK at the Immigration Appeals Tribunal.

The mother and daughter were first detained in June after being refused asylum. Adeoti, said to be severely traumatised, was released after three weeks and allowed to stay with her aunt in Gillingham, Kent.

Reports from the High Court say judges were told that the order to release the mother and daughter from detention had come from Home Secretary Alan Johnson.

But that has been denied by the UK Border Agency.

The Agency's strategic director of the criminality and detention group, David Wood, said it was an "operational" decision:

He said: "The decision to release this 10-year-old Nigerian girl and her mother was an operational one taken by the UK Border Agency. There was no ministerial involvement at any level.

"We undertake regular detention reviews on all our cases, to ensure we only detain people when it is necessary and lawful to do so."

The authorities must now decide the conditions of the mother and daughter's release. The girl's lawyers said they feared that electronic tagging or regular visits to a police station could be too traumatic for her.

Adeoti's lawyer, Mark Henderson, said he was now withdrawing a challenge to the deportation decision that was based upon a judicial review.

Mr Henderson said there would instead be a "full merits appeal" at the tribunal.