The High Court refused an urgent application to prevent the deportation of a Nigerian woman while she pursued a judicial review of the deportation order. Mr Justice Cooke gave his reasons on 4 February 2010, after the application was refused the previous day.
The woman, then aged 22, had arrived in Ireland in September 2008 and claimed asylum, saying she feared persecution in Nigeria because she had refused to take part in religious rituals. Her asylum claim was rejected, as was a later application for subsidiary protection. A deportation order was made on 15 October 2009. She said she received it around 29 October.
Her judicial review challenge alleged, among other grounds, that the Minister had inadequately considered her rights to respect for private and family life. She argued that deportation would separate her from her mother and relatives in Ireland. For the injunction application, her counsel relied mainly on that argument.
The judge said he had considerable doubt that the challenge met the threshold for a fair issue to be tried, given the file note’s reference to the representations and its consideration of private and family life. He nevertheless accepted that a fair issue might be raised, in light of the delicate issue and the urgency of the application.
The application failed on the remaining interim-injunction criteria. The judge considered whether refusal would cause irreparable harm and where the balance of convenience lay. He noted that the deportation order had been in place since October and that the applicant had been reporting to immigration authorities as required. The court was asked to intervene at short notice, although deportation had been an apparent possibility since the order was notified.
The judge also held that her continued presence in Ireland was not indispensable to the judicial review. Her legal team was instructed, her affidavit had been sworn, and the issue about the Minister’s explanation was a legal one that did not require her presence in the State.
The court’s decision was limited to the request for an interlocutory injunction. It did not decide the substantive judicial review challenge. Justice Cooke said that even if the challenge ultimately succeeded, the result could be a requirement for the Minister to reconsider the representations; it would not itself establish a right to remain in Ireland. The injunction was refused, leaving the deportation order in place. The judgment does not state whether or when deportation took place.