Mother jailed with her 4 children agrees to be deported back to Nigeria

A Nigerian mother whose joint incarceration with her four children drew heavy criticism in Israel has agreed to be deported over immigration offenses.

A spokeswoman for the Population Immigration and Border Authority tells The Times of Israel that the government is currently coordinating flights for the five of them.

Channel 10 reports that the family is already at Ben Gurion International Airport.

The mother, Marcy, arrived in Israel in 2010 and has remained in the country illegally. She had been jailed with her four children at Givon Prison for over three weeks.

The jailing of the children was first revealed in reports in the Maariv daily and Channel 10 television, with the most recent report airing on Thursday and triggering a flurry of criticism that led Interior Minister Aryeh Deri to appeal to the Nigerian embassy in Israel to convince Marcy to leave the country.