A Croatian man and his teenage son are facing deportation following the High Court’s rejection today of legal challenges to orders for their deportation.
The man’s wife and 11-year-old daughter are also living in Ireland but their applications for asylum here have not yet been processed.
Mr Miodreg Sinik, who is an ethnic Serb, had told the court he feared he would be killed if returned to Croatia. The court also heard his wife, Ms Biljana Sinik, suffered from psychiatric problems which had been exacerbated through being placed by the authorities here in overcrowded living conditions.
Mr Sinik has been detained in Mountjoy prison since he was arrested earlier this month for failing to present himself at Drogheda garda station on foot of the deportation order.
During the legal challenge, the court was told Mrs Sinik had twice attempted to take her life. The family have been living in refugee accommodation while in Ireland, having first arrived in 2000. They lived in Drogheda for some time and later went to refugee accommodation at Mosney, Co Meath.
After a two day hearing, Mr Justice Smyth reserved judgment. He had indicated judgment would probably be delivered on Tuesday but in fact delivered his decision today.
After reviewing the details of the case, the judge said that, in all the circumstances, he was satisfied that an application by the man for leave to apply for judicial review of his case should not be granted and he would refuse the application.
He said there was no evidence to show the Minister had taken irrelevant considerations into account when making the deportation order or that he had failed to take relevant considerations into account. The jurisdiction of the court in judicial review proceedings was restricted. It was not a court of appeal.
The family left Croatia in early 1998 and went to Norway where they applied unsuccessfully for refugee status. In November 2000 they returned to Croatia but shortly afterwards Mr Sinik left because he felt he was unwelcome there. Soon afterwards, the family were driven by a friend through Yugoslavia, Hungary and Belgium to Ireland.
The husband and wife claimed asylum here but the wife withdrew her application (it was renewed at a later stage). In documentation, the husband said they had gone to Norway because his wife had had a nervous breakdown. He was refused refugee status.
It was stated that the Norwegian authorities, for humanitarian reasons, had allowed the mother, accompanied by her daughter, to remain there for three months while Mrs Sinik received treatment and her mental health improved. The mother and daughter returned here on June 7th last.
On June 28th last, the Minister for Justice notified the father and son by letter that he had signed orders for their deportation.
It was submitted on behalf of the family that the Minister had failed to consider and give proper weight to representations made on behalf of the family in a letter sent to the Legal Aid Board on July 4th last. It was claimed family circumstances had changed in that Mrs Sinik and their daughter had returned to Ireland and that the family were currently living in accommodation in Mosney.
The State argued that Mr and Mrs Sinik seemed to have gone separately through the asylum process. The Minister had lawfully made the deportation orders relating to Mr Sinik and his son on the basis of the facts then known, it said.