Couple win right of appeal on order to deport

The Bulgarian parents of two Irish-born children, one of whom died when he was just four months old and is buried in Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery, have secured leave from the High Court to bring a legal challenge to a deportation order served on them.

Mr Justice Frank Clarke ruled yesterday that the couple had established substantial grounds for bringing judicial review proceedings to quash the decision by the Minister for Justice to deport them.

Andon Kozhukarov and his partner Bilyana Spasova lost their first Irish-born baby, Donald, when he was four months old. They said they wished to stay here in order to be able to visit the child's grave in Glasnevin Cemetery. They have a second Irish-born son, Andi, who is 10 months old.

In his decision, Mr Justice Clarke said there were unusual circumstances to this case. He held the Kozhukarovs were entitled to challenge the Minister for Justice's decision to deport them on grounds of a possible disproportionate interference with their rights to respect for private and family life under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Outside court, the couple said they were grateful to the judge for giving them a second chance.

"According to Bulgarian tradition we visit our son's grave every Sunday," Mr Kozhukarov said. "That is all we want and what is important to us. We thank the judge who has given us a second chance."

The couple have lived here since they left Bulgaria in 2002. In making the deportation order against the parents, the Minister for Justice failed to consider the tragic and unique circumstances of the case, they claimed.

Last month, the High Court was told the deportation order was made on December 8th, 2004, and the couple were informed of it last February.

Mr Kozhukarov and Ms Spasova had earlier unsuccessfully applied for asylum here based on fear of persecution on the grounds of their ethnic identity as Romas. They claimed Mr Kozhukarov was beaten and Ms Spasova was raped by policemen in the Bulgarian town where they lived and that their home was also set alight.