The High Court has dismissed an Albanian national’s challenge to the Minister for Justice and Equality’s refusal to revoke a deportation order, and discharged an injunction restraining his deportation.
In a judgment delivered on 21 December 2017, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said the applicant’s submissions about his relationship with his brother and his private life were too limited to show that the Minister’s decision was invalid in law. The court stressed that the judicial review concerned the refusal to revoke an existing deportation order, which the applicant had not challenged.
The applicant came to Ireland in 2011 and applied for asylum; that application was rejected. Representations in 2012 said he was living with his brother. Further submissions in 2014 included a retired teacher’s letter saying he had moved around and was “semi-homeless”. A deportation order was made in November 2016. The Minister refused the applicant’s request to revoke it in June 2017.
The applicant argued that the Minister had failed to properly consider his rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, particularly because, he said, his brother was a recognised refugee in Ireland and he was wholly dependent on him. The judge noted that the earlier accounts of where the applicant lived conflicted, and that the later request to revoke the order did not meaningfully clarify the situation. It included only a brief statement that he lived with his brother.
The judge said an applicant may provide further detail about circumstances that existed when a deportation order was made. But the Minister was not required to reconsider the case from the beginning. On the material submitted, the judge accepted the Minister’s conclusion that no truly new information had been presented.
The court also rejected the applicant’s arguments concerning Article 3 and his medical condition. It found that the submissions did not establish the threshold of substantial grounds for a claim of real risk of treatment contrary to Article 3. The medical report had been quoted in the Minister’s decision, and the judge found the conclusion that it did not establish exceptional circumstances was lawful in the circumstances.
The judgment also rejected the claim for declaratory relief under the EU Charter, holding that deportation in a case of this kind was not a process covered by EU law. The court dismissed the proceedings and, applying the principles in Okunade, discharged the injunction restraining deportation. The ruling did not revisit the deportation order itself.