Chinese couple seek Irish-born daughter’s return to Ireland

A Chinese couple living and working in Ireland are challenging the Minister for Justice’s refusal to allow their Irish-born three-year-old daughter return here to live with them after staying with her grandparents in China.

Jiayi Shao was refused permission earlier this year to re-enter the country after being sent to stay temporarily with her grandparents in 2009 when both her parents were working and studying.

Meijiao Yu and her husband Xiao Shao, legally resident in Clondalkin, Dublin, claim the family has been torn apart as a result of the decision.

Ms Yu said she was 25, “young and inexperienced”, and she and her husband were under significant stress when their daughter was born in May 2009.  They had not planned to have a child until their circumstances were more secure and found it very difficult to cope.

They decided to send their daughter, aged four months, to China to live with her grandparents for a short time. That decision was “very difficult” but was taken “out of great love and concern” in the child’s best interests, as they were both working and studying and not then in a secure financial position.

They were not aware that by sending her to her grandparents, they were putting an obstacle in the way of being reunited when their circumstances improved, she said. They never intended the separation to be long-term.

Missing child
Since their daughter left, "we have missed her every day", she said. The situation had become increasingly difficult as the child was no longer a baby with basic needs but a growing, questioning, active child. "She asks all the time why she cannot be with us and when she can come to live with us." Ms Yu said she finds it very difficult to tolerate the separation.

At the High Court yesterday, Ms Justice Maureen Clark granted leave to the family to challenge the decision by the Minister for Justice and Equality refusing re-entry to the child. The case is supported by the Immigrant Council of Ireland, whose solicitor Hilkka Becker said there were many families in similar situations here.

The couple came here as students about 10 years ago and were granted extensions to their student permits allowing them to study and work here.

Their child was refused re-entry because the permit scheme does not allow for children to join them and does not provide an exemption for children born in Ireland. They claim the 2004 Student Probationary Extension Scheme, under which they were granted the right to work and study here, wrongly precludes them applying for reunification with family members resident outside the State.

Human rights
They claim the decision refusing their daughter a visa breaches their family rights under the Constitution and European Convention on Human Rights.

The couple are working and can support their daughter and pay for health insurance, the court was told. The case returns next month.