No more right to remain for parents of Irish born children
01 August 2003
Eleven thousand asylum seekers face immediate deportation after Minister of Justice Michael McDowell announced on 17 July that their claims for residency solely on the basis that they have become parents of Irish citizen children have been nullified. Officials immediately issued 400 deportation notices. People were told that they only had 15 days to appeal, but without legal aid for a process that could cost between 2,000 to 4,000 euros. The decision follows a Supreme Court ruling on 23 January this year that removed the right of parents to remain with Irish born children. While these Irish children cannot be legally deported, they will be forced to leave the country with their families. In effect, this marks the beginning of a racialised citizenship law in Ireland.
The Supreme Court found that as Irish citizens, no child born to non-national parents in Ireland, can be deported. Such a child citizen has rights of residency. It also clearly sets out that Irish child citizens have the constitutionally protected right to the company of their parents and therefore that there is a prima facie case for the family to reside in the State with their child. But:
the Court also found that the family rights of an Irish child citizen are not absolute and can be restricted in certain circumstances, including for reasons relating to immigration policy. This therefore allows for the possibility of deporting non-national parents of Irish children in certain circumstances, as they are not by reason of constitutional imperative automatically entitled to residency, although their child, as an Irish Citizen, is. (Irish Council of Civil Liberties)
The mass deportation of parents of Irish born children, however, was authorised a decision by the Justice department on 19 February that removed the right of parents to apply for citizenship solely on grounds of parentage to Irish born children. In reaction to the notice on the Department of Justice website, Aisling Reidy, Director of the ICCL commented:
Far from what is implied by the Department of Justice, this move is not a necessary result of the Supreme Court decision in the Osayande and Lobe cases. However, those who were worried that the Department of Justice would react in a broad, arbitrary and unfair manner to that decision have had their fears confirmed by this decision of the Minister.
The ICCL and the Irish Refugee Council pointed out that the Supreme Court did not decide that non-national parents have no right to apply for residency rather that it confirmed that every Irish child citizen has a right to residency, irrespective of who their parents are, but that non-national parents do not have an automatic entitlement to residency.
On 17 July 2003 the Minister for Justice announced that a backlog of 11,000 claims for residency for non-EU immigrant parents solely on the basis that they have become parents of Irish citizen children had been nullified. Four hundred notices of effective deportation were issued, informing people that the Minister proposes to deport them, and that they have 15 working days to make written representations for temporary leave to remain on humanitarian grounds, which may include parentage of an Irish citizen, the length of time they have resided in Ireland and their family and domestic circumstances. Alternatively those issued with the notices can agree to the voluntary return option.
While Irish child citizens cannot be legally deported, they will be practically obliged to leave the country with their parents. The Minister made clear he will not be "blackmailed" by parents threatening to leave their children behind, and, if necessary, the courts will compel them to take their citizen children with them.
The Coalition Against Deportation of Irish Citizens (CADIC) has published a useful information leaflet (5.9.03) detailing the legal aspects of these recent decisions (see http://www.childrensrights.ie/pubs/CADICinformatio