The Supreme Court allowed an appeal by an anonymised Congolese woman and ordered that she not be deported while two judicial review applications are determined, or until further order. The ruling is an interim measure; it does not decide whether the challenged immigration decisions were lawful or whether she would face harm if returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The woman arrived in Ireland in 2007 and applied for asylum that December. Her asylum and subsidiary protection applications were refused, and a deportation order was made in September 2011. She did not challenge those decisions at the time. In July 2012, she sought consent to re-enter the asylum process and asked the Minister for Justice to revoke the deportation order. Both requests were refused.
She brought judicial review proceedings challenging the refusal to re-enter the asylum process and, later, the refusal to revoke the deportation order. Neither application for leave to seek judicial review had been determined. The High Court refused an interlocutory injunction preventing deportation and declined to extend a stay. She appealed and also applied to the Supreme Court for interim protection.
The Supreme Court considered whether she had an arguable case and where the risk of injustice lay while the judicial review proceedings remained unresolved. It found an arguable case on whether the Minister had correctly applied the statutory test for re-entry to the asylum process, and whether the prohibition on refoulement and Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights had been complied with.
The Court said the evidence included conflicting country information, including the “Unsafe Return” report submitted for the woman and a UK Border Agency report considered by the Minister. Resolving those conflicts was not the task of a court deciding an interim application. The Court found a credible basis, at the arguable-case stage, for suggesting that deportation could expose her to a real risk of significant harm. It found no very weighty countervailing considerations to displace the balance in favour of an injunction.
The Court allowed the appeal, discharged the High Court order of 16 September 2013 and restrained deportation pending determination of both judicial review applications or further order. It said the applications for leave should be expedited. The order does not resolve the underlying judicial reviews or make a final finding on the risk of return.