Judge calls for Syrian families not to be deported from EU

A High Court judge has sought assurances that two families now in Greece – after fleeing their native Syria – will not be moved beyond the jurisdiction of any EU state, pending determination of a legal challenge here.

Mr Justice Paul Gilligan asked to be "given comfort" the families will not be returned to Syria, from where they fled besieged Aleppo, or to anywhere where EU jurisdiction does not apply.

The families arrived in Greece last March, after travelling from Turkey on a rubber dinghy with 58 other people.

They want to be permitted to join other family members in Germany but fear they may be returned to Turkey because of the EU-Turkey deal on migration.

They claim that deal – agreed last March by the European Council, made up of EU heads of state including Taoiseach Enda Kenny – breaches EU law and is outside EC powers.

The deal involved the EU promising to pay €6 billion, along with political concessions, if Turkey would take back migrants who reach Greece via Turkey.

Incompatible

The families say the deal, and Ireland’s sanctioning of it, is incompatible with this country’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and breaches various EU treaties – including the Treaty on Functioning of the EU, as well as the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.

The plaintiffs are a married couple and their two daughters, aged 10 and 15 (they also have a son in Germany), along with another man, and his 13-year-old daughter, whose wife and other child are also in Germany.

They say they are entitled, under the EU Dublin III regulations of 2013, to be transferred to Germany to join their family members who have secured international protection but claim they are unlawfully prevented from doing so due to the EU-Turkey deal.

They have spent spent several weeks in refugee camps on the Greek islands of Chios and Leros.

The case is against the European Council (the body representing the 28 EU heads of State), the EU, Ireland and the Attorney General.

The EU/State parties want the action dismissed, arguing Ireland is not the appropriate forum for it.

Different attitude

On Tuesday, Mr Justice Gilligan said the issue of which country has jurisdiction in this matter should be decided first.

He adjourned the matter to Friday when he will determine how the case is to progress and said he wanted counsel for the EU and European Council to give the court comfort on Friday that the families will not be returned to Syria or removed beyond the jurisdiction of any EU country.

This was a case which could take up to three months to complete and the court would not want to find they had been removed elsewhere while it was pending, he said.

“If there is no comfort forthcoming, it may be I have to take a different attitude,” he said.