The High Court has quashed the Minister for Justice’s decision refusing family reunification applications for the mother and adult sister of a Somali woman granted refugee status in Ireland. It sent the applications back to the Minister for a fresh decision.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Hogan on 10 December 2010, concerned a judicial review of the Minister’s decision of 29 September 2009. A further letter dated 1 October gave reasons for upholding the original refusal: the Minister considered that the refugee could not support the family members or that they did not qualify as dependent family members under section 18(4) of the Refugee Act 1996.
The woman had arrived in Ireland in September 2004 and received refugee status in January 2006. Her mother and sister, themselves Somali refugees living in Ethiopia, had cared for her three young children after she fled. The judgment records that they received remittances from her between 2006 and 2009. The children’s applications were dealt with separately: following DNA testing, the Minister granted permission for two children to join their mother in Ireland, while another went to live with an aunt in Sweden.
The court rejected the Minister’s argument that he lacked authority to conduct an internal review of the original refusal. It held that section 18 did not prevent the Minister from receiving further submissions or evidence and exercising the relevant powers again.
But the court found the reasons for refusing the mother and sister’s applications legally inadequate. The mother’s medical reports described blindness in her left eye, poor vision in her right eye, rheumatism and depression, and said she needed close family support. The Minister had not explained how he concluded that she did not meet the statutory disability criterion. The judge said the decision gave no explanation for that conclusion in light of the evidence.
The court also held that section 18(4) asks whether a family member was in fact dependent on the refugee at the time of the application. It does not ask whether the refugee could afford to support that person if they came to Ireland. The evidence described the mother and sister as relying on the woman’s remittances for financial survival in Ethiopia, although the woman herself relied principally on social welfare payments. The court concluded the Minister had applied the wrong legal test.
The court quashed the decision of 1 October 2009 and remitted the matter to the Minister to make a fresh decision. It did not itself grant permission for the mother or sister to enter or reside in Ireland.