The High Court has refused a mother and her two daughters’ application for judicial review of deportation orders made in March 2004, finding that the challenge was undermined by delay, acquiescence and credibility concerns.
In a judgment dated 31 January 2006, Mr Justice John MacMenamin said the issues in the judicial review were distinct from an earlier injunction application. In December 2005, the court had granted an interlocutory injunction restraining deportation on specified grounds pending determination of the judicial review. That earlier order related to events after the family’s deportation in April 2004; the present judgment addressed the lawfulness of the deportation decision made in February and March 2004.
The mother disputed that she had sought asylum for her elder daughter when she brought her to Garda immigration officers in Cork in May 1999, and said she had only notified authorities of the child’s arrival. The judge accepted evidence from a retired detective sergeant and contemporaneous records indicating that she had requested asylum for the child. He also found that the mother had brought her younger daughter to the authorities after the child arrived in Ireland in 2000, and rejected the mother’s evidence that she had not understood the asylum process.
The mother and daughters later argued that the children’s circumstances should have been considered separately, including their claimed risk of female genital mutilation if returned to Nigeria. The judge said no distinct grounds of persecution for the children had been put to the authorities before March 2004. He found that the issue was raised late, after deportation orders were issued, and that the delay and the family’s conduct weakened the credibility of the claims.
The judgment also considered the mother’s challenge to the assessment of her employment prospects under the Immigration Act. A departmental officer had described those prospects as slight. The judge said that view was one part of the material before the Minister, and that the documents showed submissions on the matters the Minister was required to consider.
The family had been deported to Nigeria on 7 April 2004 and later returned to Ireland. The judge noted they had not sought an injunction to secure re-entry while the case was pending, and identified other possible routes, including seeking permission for further asylum applications or asking the Minister to revoke the deportation orders.
The court declined the application for judicial review. The judgment records no setting aside of the deportation orders. It directed that the judgment on the leave application be read together with this ruling.