Grandfather ‘threatened to violate a virgin’

A court has granted an injunction stopping the deportation of the parents of two children who fled Malawi because of an alleged threat by their grandfather to violate “a virgin from his own bloodline”.

The threat came from the grandfather after a witch doctor said this would cure his HIV infection, it was claimed in court.

Despite the parents’ subterfuge in trying to avoid deportation so far, it would be unjust to visit the children with the consequences of the parents’ wrongdoing, the Court of Appeal said.

The children are a girl, 8, and a boy, 7. The boy was born here but is not a citizen. The girl arrived here with her mother in 2008 when she was two and both children are going to school here.

Mr Justice Gerard Hogan, on behalf of the three-judge appeal court, said there is no doubt that the dislocation the children would suffer if “suddenly wrenched from the only environment they have known or experienced would be significant”.

The parents had sought the injunction after they failed in their 2009 application for asylum. They then sought subsidiary protection which allows someone who does not fall within the definition of asylum-seeker to seek protection on the basis of persecution if sent back to their home country.

They also failed in that application and appealed to the Court of Appeal which granted their application for injunction against deportation pending the full hearing of their case.

Mr Justice Hogan said the parents had contended during their asylum bid that the wife’s father had consulted a local witchdoctor in Malawi about his HIV status.

The witchdoctor allegedly said that, in order to be cured, the grandfather would have to have sex with “a virgin from his own bloodline”, the judge said.

A Refugee Appeals Tribunal said there were many doubts surrounding their credibility.

Mr Justice Hogan said if one was to look at the parents’ position in isolation, he would not be in favour of granting the injunction.

However, the balance of convenience lay in favour of the children remaining in the State given the implications for their schooling, friendship and family structures, he said.