Nicola Crawley went to Lahos to marry Murphy Adisa Yusufu, who was deported from Ireland last December following a failed bid to allow him remain in the country.

She now claims her constitutional rights are being violated after getting word back last week that her husband would not be allowed a visa to live in Ireland.

The couple were married in a ceremony in Lagos on 31 March.

However, hopes that Yusufu might be allowed to return to Ireland to live with his wife have been dashed by the government's refusal to issue him with a visa.

The couple have been together for over three years and had lived together in Dublin prior to Yusufu's deportation in December. They applied for a spouse's visa shortly after the wedding but last week received word that the visa would not be granted due to Yusufu's prior immigration history. Visas cannot be issued to anyone who has already been deported from Ireland.

Crawley says she was "heartbroken" by the decision and has said that she is now looking into moving to another European state, such as Spain or Britain, in the hope that Yusufu might be allowed to remain there.

Although she is reluctant to uproot her nine-year-old son Stephen from Dublin, she says that their inability to live as a family in Ireland has left them with little choice.

"It's not fair on Stephen but we both want to live with Murphy and it doesn't look like that is going to be possible in Ireland, " Crawley told the Sunday Tribune. "Our family has been broken up. The constitution is supposed to protect families but my husband isn't allowed into the country."

The couple got engaged shortly before Yusufu was deported back to Nigeria last December and decided to follow through with their wedding plans despite their forced separation.

Crawley travelled to Nigeria in March for two weeks and says she was stunned by the conditions facing her now husband. Yusufu is living with his brother in a run-down residential area in Lagos but claims he has been unable to find work.

"Lagos is a hellhole, " said Crawley.

"Murphy is living with his brother at the moment but he can't find a job anywhere. There is just no work out there. His brother works in printing but some days he makes no money at all. They are surviving on money myself and some of his friends are sending back from Ireland.

"The government over here seems to think that Nigeria is a grand little country, but I've seen it with my own eyes."

Crawley was accompanied by her sister, Sandra, on the journey to Lagos. She bought a wedding dress in Ireland before she travelled to Africa. While Crawley finally managed to marry her partner, her wedding day was ruined when she fell ill that evening. Although she had been taking anti-malaria drugs, subsequent tests found that she had contracted the disease.

"We were married in a registry office in Lagos, " she said. "Murphy's family were there, as was my sister, and it was a lovely ceremony.

It was a great day but I wasn't feeling well and had to go to hospital.

They did tests on me and the doctor said that I had contracted malaria.

I never imagined that I'd spend my wedding night in a hospital in Lagos."

Yusufu first arrived in Ireland in 1999 and sought asylum, claiming that his life was in danger from Muslim gangs that had killed his father. However, his application was rejected, as were subsequent appeals, and he received a deportation order last November. Yusufu was deported to Nigeria last December, shortly before Christmas.

His case received widespread media coverage after Crawley and her son pleaded with the authorities to allow him remain in Ireland.

"I want to live in Dublin with my husband, " said Crawley. "If I can't do that then we are going to have to look at moving abroad. I just want to be with Murphy."