Department urged to intervene to help Sligo woman stranded in Dubai with daughter

The woman from Sligo, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been holed up in the United Arab Emirates since January and cannot leave because her daughter has a British passport and cannot get emergency travel documents. File picture: Nasser Younes/AFP/Getty Images

A mediator acting for an Irish mother stranded in Dubai with her daughter has said it is “unconscionable” that Ireland has evacuated Irish citizens, but the woman and her daughter cannot leave because they do not have the correct documentation.

The woman from Sligo, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been holed up in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since January and cannot leave because her daughter has a British passport and cannot get emergency travel documents.

She said she is “running out of money” and is “stranded in Dubai where missiles continue to go off overhead".

The mediator acting on behalf of the mother and child, Miceál O’Hurley from Munster Mediation, is now asking the Department of Foreign Affairs to intervene.

He said: “The mother can readily prove that she has made exhaustive and repeated efforts to obtain an emergency travel document (ETD) for her child from the British Consulate, but to no avail.

“Her daughter is legally her dependent and normally resident in Ireland from where she was unlawfully taken and retained in the UAE by her father.

“The court order proves Ireland has asserted unequivocal jurisdiction over the child and has ordered the child to be returned to Ireland accompanied by her mother.” 

He added that he believes the Government has the discretion “to issue an ETD for the child to give effect to the existing order of the Circuit Court of Ireland that the child be returned to this jurisdiction.

“I find it unconscionable that Ireland has called for the evacuations of Irish citizens from a war zone and yet is satisfied to strand an Irish mother because Britain won't issue a passport to her daughter, thus stranding them in an area attacked daily when the USA is poised to escalate the war with the insertion of ground troops."

The mother of two won a custody battle in January in the circuit court here, to have her son and daughter returned to her care and won a second similar custody case in Dubai in January.

Her older son wishes to complete his studies in Dubai while her 10-year-old daughter has returned to her mother.

Court orders seen by the Irish Examiner show that the mother of the child was granted full custody of her daughter in July last year.

The order states that the father [respondent] of the children “is required to produce the children in the Republic of Ireland forthwith".

It goes on to state “in default of the respondent producing the children in the Republic of Ireland as ordered and directed by this court, that the children can be entrusted to the care of the appellant (the mother) and be produced in the Republic of Ireland by the appellant by her accompanying them by air travel from the UAE in circumstances where she is now physically present in the UAE."

On February 9, this year the mother also won a case in UAE to have her daughter returned to her care and the court order states “the Applicant has taken custody of the minor”. 

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it “is aware of the case and has provided advice. The Department does not comment on the details of individual cases".