Assembly members' Lordorice deport vow.

Byline: By ANDREW GREGORY

POLITICIANS were yesterday urged to throw their weight behind a campaign to stop a mother and baby being deported.

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said Lordorice Djountso and her 15-month-old daughter Imelda were the human faces of the torment experienced by those fleeing conflict.

Lordorice left Cameroon in 2005 after she was raped and forced to watch family members being murdered.

She set up home in Ballynafeigh, South Belfast, but two months ago she was taken to a top-security English detention centre with Imelda.

The pair were allowed to return to Belfast last week but both still face being deported on June 22.

Mr McGuinness said: "It's the test of the political process here and I believe that we have a duty to stand by those who have been abused.

"Lordorice has been horribly abused and it does raise important issues for the Executive.

"Are we going to stand back and see this child sent back to Cameroon where it would represent a real danger to her mother and to herself?"

The Sinn Fein Assembly member for Mid-Ulster added he may write to Prime Minister Tony Blair about the case.

Lordorice said yesterday: "I am happy for this support. Before I left Cameroon I was always scared but now I am in Belfast."

MPs Lady Sylvia Hermon and Dr Alasdair McDonnell have also backed a review of her asylum bid.

CAPTION(S):

SINN WEAN: Martin McGuinness holds Imelda at Stormont yesterday; DETENTION: Lordorice