Drug dealer loses deportation battle

A South African man, jailed for possession and sale of drugs, has lost a legal challenge in the High Court against a deportation order that will send him home while his two Irish-born children remain in Ireland.

Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said the applicant and his wife, who is also South African, married in their home country and came to Ireland in the late 1990s. They had two children in the State.

The man had applied for and was refused refugee status and lost an appeal against the decision but had been granted leave to remain on the basis of being the father of an Irish citizen.