A HIGH Court judge has awarded the Moldovan wife of a Romanian man €7,500 damages after she was refused entry to the State and detained in prison for three days.
Mr Justice Gerard Hogan strongly criticised the State over its policy towards the admission into the State of non-EU spouses of EU nationals.
Aurelia Raducan arrived at Dublin airport with her husband, Radu Raducan, on a flight from the Romanian capital Bucharest, on October 29th, 2010.
Ms Raducan did not have an Irish visa but was entitled to be admitted into the State once a family residence card and/or marriage certificate was presented.
Ms Raducan claimed she presented both those documents to a Garda immigration officer. She claimed the officer told her she needed a visa, the residence card was not valid and then arrested her under the Immigration Act 2003. She was brought to the Dóchas Centre women’s prison and detained for three nights.
Gardaí claimed they were not provided with either the residence card or the marriage certificate. It was also claimed the couple gave “vague and contradictory explanations” about the length of their stay, had one-way tickets and Ms Raducan had previously overstayed her Irish visa.
In his judgment on the couple’s proceedings against the Minister for Justice, Ireland and the Attorney General, Mr Justice Hogan said Ms Raducan had an unquestioned right to enter the State once either the residence card or marriage certificate was produced, and he found that she had produced them.
It was “a matter of profound regret that a perfectly innocent person who had every right to enter the State was instead refused entry and found herself obliged to spend the equivalent of three full days in custody”. This must have been “a humiliating and degrading experience”.
While no blame should be attached to the gardaí involved, the same could not be said of the State and its policy with regard to the admission of citizens of non-EU countries who were spouses of EU nationals, he said.
The failure to have a visa-processing service for people such as the couple in this case at Dublin airport or elsewhere was “openly at variance” with EU law, he said. Appropriate steps had also not been taken to inform immigration personnel of the nature and importance of family residence cards.
The judge ruled that Ms Raducan’s detention was unlawful and he also granted a declaration the State had breached EU directives which exempted holders of valid residence cards and their family members from visa requirements.
The couple, represented by Anthony Collins SC, married in Moldova in March 2007. They came to the State in April 2007 after which Ms Raducan overstayed her Irish visa.
They left in July 2010 and went to Romania where they went to some trouble to ensure Ms Raducan’s marital status – hence her entitlement to accompany her husband – would be vouchsafed.
They obtained a marriage certificate from the Moldovan embassy in Romania in October 2009 and an international recognition of that certificate was obtained in April 2010.
Ms Raducan also obtained a residence card as a family member of an EU citizen in September 2010.