The High Court has refused an application to stop the Minister for Justice from carrying out a deportation order against a Nigerian national while his family’s judicial review case proceeds.
Mr Justice Cooke ruled on 14 February 2011 that the applicants had not raised a fair issue that implementation of the order would be unlawful. The application for leave to bring the judicial review had not yet been heard. The court’s decision was limited to refusing an interlocutory injunction; it did not determine the judicial review itself or quash the deportation order.
The father, his wife and their two minor children, all Irish citizens, sought to challenge the order made in September 2010. The father’s two sons from an earlier marriage were notice parties. They are in foster care under District Court care orders, and their guardian ad litem and the Health Service Executive were also notice parties.
The court said the proposed judicial review grounds made general claims that the Minister had failed to consider relevant matters, acted disproportionately or breached rights, but did not identify a specific legal or factual error. It found that the Minister’s decision memoranda addressed the statutory factors and the family circumstances known to the Minister, including the four Irish citizen children. The court also said the Minister had identified concerns about preventing disorder and crime and the country’s economic well-being.
The father had admitted earlier false statements in asylum and residence applications, concealing convictions and charges, and presenting a forged letter purporting to grant permission to remain. The judgment also referred to 45 criminal convictions between 2002 and 2010. The court said this history made it impossible to conclude that the Minister’s assessment was irrational in the legal sense raised in the case, and was a strong reason to refuse interim relief.
A social worker’s affidavit described the father’s improving relationship with his two older sons and said maintaining access was in their best interests. She warned that deportation without notice or preparation could be particularly damaging. The court said this material had not been before the Minister when the order was made, so it could not determine the order’s validity. The father could ask the Minister to consider the relationship and the timing and preparation for departure through an application to revoke the order under section 3(11) of the Immigration Act 1999. Whether that information would justify revocation was for the Minister to decide.