Absence of migrant family law criticised

The absence of clear law on the issue of family reunification for migrants has been criticised by two High Court judges, who have said the prevalence of consequent judicial reviews is clogging up court time and wasting State resources.

The views were raised at a conference held by the Immigration Council of Ireland yesterday on admitting migrants on the grounds they have family members living here.

Council chief executive Denise Charlton said Ireland was the only EU state without primary law on the issue. Applicants were unaware of the criteria on which their claims would be judged, which led to more appeals upon rejection.

The only appeals process was judicial review, which she criticised as being “very costly” to all parties.

Mr Justice John Cooke said there was “far too much” judicial review.

“There have been two interesting judgments recently by my colleague Ms Justice Maureen Clark, in which she goes into some detail on what she obviously considered the absurdity of this approach,” he said.