Deportation orders face legal test

Hundreds of legal challenges to deportation orders against the parents of Irish children are likely in coming months, the Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC) organisation has warned.

Ms Eleanor Edmond, solicitor with FLAC, said one of the first such cases, involving a Romanian family, was due before the High Court on February 5th. The family will seek leave to apply for a judicial review of a deportation order made against them.

Ms Edmond was speaking in advance of the first anniversary today of the Supreme Court decision that non-EU nationals were not automatically entitled to residency here on the basis of having an Irish-born child.

The forthcoming case is being taken on a number of grounds, including that the order makes no reference to the welfare of the Irish citizen child.

"The cases have not really started yet because only a small proportion of deportation orders have been issued, but I would imagine that when they start, cases will happen."

Asked how many she thought there would be she said: "Certainly hundreds."

Last January's Supreme Court judgment was followed in February by a move from the Department of Justice to stop accepting applications for residency on the basis of having an Irish-born baby.

The move has placed up to 11,000 immigrants, who had already made residency applications, in what the Immigrant Council of Ireland describes as "legal limbo".

Although just over 1,000 immigrants have received letters telling them of the Minister for Justice's intention to deport them, up to 10,000 others are waiting on them.

There have been a small number of deportations under the move. The deportation letters give recipients 15 working days to make a submission on why they should be given humanitarian leave to remain.

However, the criteria by which a decision is made remain "totally unclear" according to the Irish Refugee Council, In addition, recipients of the letters are not entitled to legal aid.

"The whole thing is a shambles," said Sister Breege Keenan of the Vincentian Refugee Centre.

"It's the not knowing - not knowing whether they will get a letter, not knowing the criteria that will be used if they do get a letter. It puts an enormous strain on these parents who cannot plan anything. Talk about having to live in the present. You can do nothing but. It's just so inhumane."

Mr McDowell has committed his Department to examining all 11,000 cases individually and consequently the process may go on for years.

The Department of Justice was unable to give The Irish Times details of how many deportation letters had been sent out, how many parents had replied, how many had been deported or whether any costing had been done on the process.

The Coalition Against the Deportation of Irish Children will today call for the regularisation of the 11,000 families.

The Irish Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism is seeking a formal process of consultation between the Department and immigrants' interest groups on the situation.