State could be sued over child deportations

FAILURE to adequately assess the threats an Irish-born child may face on deportation could lead to future lawsuits against the State, a children’s rights group has warned.

The Children’s Rights Alliance (CRA) yesterday criticised the absence of any framework to assess a child’s right to remain in Ireland and the current practice of deciding their futures “behind closed doors”. Strict criteria are used to assess a parent’s right to remain in the country, but the existing system is adult-based. Up to 500 children face deportation with their parents, according to CRA chief executive Jillian Van Turnhout.

“If there is a child impact assessment, at least parents would know why a decision is taken. At the moment it’s all in a vacuum,” Ms Van Turnhout said.

“They are being made on an arbitrary, ad-hoc basis and behind closed doors.”

The CRA want assessments of a child’s deportation to include:

Their welfare and protection by the state.

The safety of their destination country.

The health and education standards open to them.

Monitoring of them by the state in the foreign country.

Any discrimination or threat the child may face.

Since January last year, residency was granted to migrant parents of Irish-born children under certain conditions in the Irish Born Child 2005 administrative scheme. Up to 18,000 applications were received, but 1,000 of these were rejected.

At the All Our Children report launch yesterday, family law expert Geoffrey Shannon warned a strong case could be taken in the European Court of Human Rights if the State deported a child without a proper assessment system.

“When a child reaches 18 years of age, they may have an action after suffering ill-treatment,” Mr Shannon said.

Mr Shannon said the present system for children ignored core values in the constitution and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.