Minister must ‘halt plans for deportation’

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell must freeze the planned deportation of 11,500 asylum-seeking families until the test case on their claim for residency is heard in the High Court.

The demand by the Coalition Against the Deportation of Irish Children (CADIC) follows the High Court ruling that a Nigerian mother may legally challenge the Government’s decision to abolish a scheme that allowed parents of Irish-born children to apply for residency.

Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan, who made the High Court ruling, held that Jennifer Ojadua Egbrin and her Irish-born one-year-old son had established substantial grounds to challenge the minister’s refusal to consider her application for residency.

The minister’s refusal was based on the abolition of the scheme in February 19 2003. Ms Egbrin’s residency application was made two weeks before the scheme was abolished, but the Government later announced it would not be considering the outstanding applications made before February 19, 2003.

The case was adjourned until October 20 when a date for a hearing of the full action will be fixed for some time before Christmas.

There are 11,500 asylum-seeking families in the same position as Ms Egbrin and facing deportation because of the change in legislation, according to CADIC.

“Justice now demands that the minister halt any deportations of parents and Irish children until the High Court has given a full hearing and judgement in the case,” CADIC spokeswoman Aisling Reidy said.

Welcoming the High Court ruling as a step towards justice for these families whose basic due process rights have been effectively denied by the minister since last February, Ms Reidy said: “This is a core issue which affects everyone who lawfully applied for residency before the minister changed his policy.”

There are currently three cases pending before the courts that all call into question the legality of the minister’s current policy of deportations, according to Ms Reidy.

“The minister, as a lawyer, knows full well that it would be unjust and inequitable to pursue deportations in light of these very serious cases with long-term implications,” she said.

A Justice Department spokesperson had not responded to the call to halt the deportation of 11,500 asylum-seeking families at the time of going to press.