Judge rules for asylum seeker to travel north

A JUDGE has told the minister for justice he may transfer a heavily pregnant 27-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker by road to the North, providing British authorities agree not to remove her from the island of Ireland pending the birth of her child next month.

Mr Justice Gerard Hogan refused to grant Rizwana Aslam an injunction restraining her return to Britain, which the minister claimed was the proper jurisdiction in which she should seek asylum. He did restrain her transfer by either sea or by air.

“One cannot readily countenance the mandatory transfer of a heavily pregnant woman by sea, not least during winter conditions, with the prospects of gales and turbulent conditions,” Judge Hogan said yesterday.

“This would represent a test of endurance which no heavily pregnant woman should ever be obliged by state action to face... There would also be the prospect of an early delivery while at sea, perhaps brought on by turbulent conditions,” he said.

Judge Hogan said it was appropriate Ms Aslam be treated with particular care and in a dignified and a humanitarian fashion. The parties had agreed Ms Aslam, who is eight months pregnant, could not be transferred by air. There was no question of the minister transferring her to Pakistan.

He said the state was constitutionally obliged to protect Ms Aslam and take steps to safeguard her unborn child. These obligations meant no steps could be taken as would unnecessarily jeopardise or compromise the life or health of either.

In this respect, it was to be naturally assumed that the minister would see to it that she was medically examined by an appropriate independent specialist and that she would only be transferred in circumstances where it was considered medically appropriate to do so.