The High Court has dismissed a judicial review application seeking to quash a deportation order made against a Pakistani national who had challenged the Minister for Justice and Equality’s assessment of his family relationship and evidence of dependency.
In a judgment delivered on 5 June 2018, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said the applicant was an “unsettled migrant”. The court held that deportation would breach Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights only in exceptional circumstances in his case.
The applicant entered the State on 20 February 2015, after following his older brother to the UK in 2012. He applied for a residence card as a permitted family member in August 2015. That application was refused in May 2016, and a review was dismissed in June 2017. A proposal to make a deportation order followed that month. After submissions were made, the order was issued on 26 January 2018.
The applicant did not challenge the refusal of his residence card. His judicial review sought certiorari of the deportation order. He argued that the Minister had wrongly treated a relationship between adult siblings as requiring wholly exceptional circumstances before Article 8 could apply, and had given undue weight to earlier residence decisions while insufficiently considering evidence of dependency.
The judge said the Minister’s assessment gave two alternative reasons for finding that Article 8 was not engaged: the material did not establish dependency beyond normal emotional ties, or exceptional circumstances. The applicant had not shown that the finding on dependency was unlawful. The judge also said he had not demonstrated dependency on his brother beyond normal emotional ties. The applicant had worked for about a year with permission to work, showing he could earn independently of his brother.
On the other grounds, the court found that earlier residence decisions had been considered as background to the assessment, rather than as independent reasons for deportation. It also found no basis to conclude that up-to-date submissions on dependency had not been considered.
The application was dismissed. The court did not quash the deportation order.