Family may have absconded to North

GARDAÍ believe one of the two

The Lobe family from the Czech Republic, who were living in Ballineen, Co Cork, and Galway-based Nigerian Andrew Osayande both secured an emergency injunction against their deportations earlier this week pending yesterday’s High Court sitting.

The injunctions were ordered to allow the two families make an emergency Section 39 appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) which would have prevented any deportation until the ECHR heard the full appeal.

However, the High Court heard yesterday that the Section 39 appeal had been rejected by the ECHR, leaving no further legal impediment to the deportations of the Lobes and Mr Osayande.

The deportation of Mr Osayande, who is being held in Dublin’s Clover Hill prison, was expected to take place last night or early this morning.

However the lawyer representing both parties told the High Court yesterday that she had not been able to contact the Lobe family since Wednesday.

“I don’t know where they are. I haven’t been able to contact them at all,” solicitor Noeline Blackwell said after yesterday’s hearing.

Ms Blackwell said that even though the ECHR had not allowed the Lobes and Mr Osayande to remain in Ireland their case had now been filed in Europe and could proceed.

“The application for interim relief has gone but their claim before the European Court remains and they can still pursue that claim. They still have their application before the ECHR,” she said.

Officers from the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) began searching in Cork for the Lobe family yesterday. David, 27, and Jana Lobe have four children including 17-month-old son Kevin, who was born in Ireland and was central to the Supreme court ruling that non-national parents of Irish-born children did not have an automatic entitlement to remain in Ireland.

Under the Dublin Convention, both Mr Osayande and the Lobes are to be deported to Britain where they first applied and were refused asylum before making a claim in Ireland.