A LANDMARK Supreme Court judgment that could have implications for hundreds of unsuccessful refugee applicants hoping to remain in the State by virtue of having children born here will be handed down tomorrow.
By Nuala Haughey
The court is expected to decide whether and in what circumstances the State is entitled to deport failed asylum-seekers who are the parents of Irish citizens.
Until now the authorities have generally granted residency to the non-EU parents of children born in Ireland, who automatically become entitled to citizenship. In the case to be decided tomorrow, the authorities have tried to break this link.
If the court rules against the two immigrant families who have brought the appeal, it will pave the way for the deportations of these individuals, and of hundreds of others in similar situations.
The Supreme Court case was brought by a Czech family and a Nigerian man who lost their High Court challenges against deportation last year. The parents had argued that they were entitled to remain in the State by virtue of having Irish citizens within their respective families.
The Lobe couple, from the Czech Republic, have a son who was born here last November, while the Nigerian man, Mr Andrew Osayande, has a son who was born in Ireland last October.
The focus of the case has been the entitlement of such children, born in the State to non-national parents, to be cared for by them within the State, even if the parents would otherwise be liable to deportation. The High Court found that the State was entitled to deport parents of a child born in Ireland, even where this could lead to the Irish citizen also being removed from the State.
Under the Constitution all people born in Ireland are entitled to claim citizenship, irrespective of the nationality or migrant status of their parents. The policy of granting residency to the non-EU parents of children born in Ireland stems from a 1990 Supreme Court ruling in the Fajujonu case.
The parents in that case, illegal migrants from Nigeria and Morocco who had lived in the State for about seven years, were allowed to remain here on the basis that their Irish child had the right to the "care, company and parentage" of its parents within the family unit.
In recent years the number of asylum-seekers and irregular migrants applying to remain in the State on the basis of the Fajujonu judgment has increased significantly. This has led to concerns that people were abusing Ireland's unique laws to gain residency.
Last year 4,027 non-EU citizens were granted residency on the basis of being parents of children born here.