Deported

I photographed Lydia Imuse and her three children, Rejoice (7), Sarah (11), and Isaac (16), days after they were deported from the Netherlands to Lagos after more than eight years in the Dutch asylum system. My images document their first days in Nigeria: confined to a small hotel room on the outskirts of Lagos, dealing with illness (malaria and typhoid), heat, power cuts, and uncertainty about where they would live next. Through my lens, I witnessed the shock of return to a country the children barely know. They carried small pieces of their life in the Netherlands with them: a Uno card game from classmates, drawings from friends, a teddy bear. Isaac spoke about being handcuffed during the deportation flight; the family arrived in Lagos with no support network, relying on strangers and limited help from a child-rights NGO. The photographs focus on the emotional weight of forced return: fear, vulnerability, and disorientation, especially for children raised in Europe and suddenly confronted with a harsh, unfamiliar reality. The work is not only about deportation as a policy, but about what it looks like on the ground: the fragile transition from one life to another, and the human cost carried by a mother and her children as they try to survive and rebuild in Lagos.

Photographs by Jean-fidèle E. Ananou for NRC

Written By Femke Van Zeijl

Commissioned by NRC.