The High Court dismissed a judicial review challenge to a deportation order against a Ukrainian man convicted of sexual assault while working as a taxi driver.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Richard Humphreys on 22 March 2018, concerned the man, his Irish-citizen wife and their two minor children. The deportation order was made by the Minister for Justice and Equality on 8 February 2018. The man had been released from custody two days after leave to bring the judicial review was granted.
The court rejected arguments that the Minister had failed to consider the family’s constitutional rights or had carried out an unlawful proportionality assessment. The judge said the Minister had identified the relevant constitutional rights and considered the key factors, including circumstances that were not expressly mentioned in the decision. The weight assigned to the children’s interests and other factors was primarily for the decision-maker, absent demonstrated illegality.
The applicants also relied on conditions in Ukraine and the risk of destitution, and argued that the children’s interests had not received sufficient weight. The judge found no unlawfulness on those grounds. He said there was no evidence the wife intended to move to Ukraine, and treated the related EU-law objection as abstract. He also rejected arguments concerning Treaty rights, noting that the relevant points had not been raised with the Minister before the decision.
After delivering judgment, counsel for the applicants asked the judge to address an additional argument under Article 24(3) of the EU Charter. The judge said the point had not been specifically put to the Minister, was not particularised in the pleadings and had not been listed as an issue for the court. He added that the decision recognised the deportation would interfere with private and family life and that contact could continue in some form. He rejected the additional argument.
The court’s order was to dismiss the proceedings. The judgment therefore left the deportation order in place; it did not itself make a new deportation order.