Family wrongly kept apart for three years, court told

THREE CHILDREN and their father have unnecessarily remained in an Ethiopian refugee camp for the last three years apart from their mother, who has refugee status here, due to the Department of Justice's failure to tell the woman it had in 2005 approved her application for them to live in Ireland, the High Court has heard.

Up to early this week, the department had still not issued visas for the father and children to come here but, after the mother initiated High Court proceedings, its lawyers told the court on Monday that the visas would be issued imminently.

The 30-year-old mother said she had finally been told by a department official last month the visas would be sent to the Irish embassy in Addis Ababa for her family to collect, but when her husband and three children went to the embassy, it told them they had had no communication from the department about visas and there were no visas.

She then initiated her High Court action for orders requiring the visas to be issued and damages, including aggravated and exemplary damages, for breaches of her rights, including to family reunification.

"I have been very distressed by being apart from my husband and children knowing they are at risk where they are and am extremely upset at the time it has taken to secure visas . . . to enable them to travel to Ireland to join me," she said in an affidavit.

"The time apart from them can never be replaced. I have lost three years with my children as they grow up." The family are Somalian and the mother fled from there to Ireland in late 2003.

She secured refugee status in August 2004 and applied to the minister for justice in late 2004 for permission for her family to join her and for visas to be issued for them.

She said she received an acknowledgement of her application from the department, stating it had referred it to the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner (Orac) for investigation. In August 2005, Orac told her it had completed its investigation.

The woman said she now knew, as a result of having late last year obtained her file from the Department of Justice under the Freedom of Information Act, that the department had drafted letters in late August 2005 stating it had granted visas to her husband and children. However, it seemed those letters were never sent and she was never told of the decision.

Because she was unaware of these letters, she said she continued to presume during 2005, 2006 and 2007 that her application was still being processed and she wrote on several occasions to the department in an unsuccessful bid to find out what was happening to it. The delay was "very upsetting" for her and she wrote to the department of her anxiety.

The Refugee Information Service had also in July 2007 written to the department on her behalf urging it to process her application at the earliest opportunity.

She said she did not receive a reply to her letters but was aware the department had received them because they were on its file of her case. She had hired solicitors who in late 2007 obtained that file under the Freedom of Information Act, the department having initially refused to release the file.

When she saw the file, she learned of the August 2005 decision and was extremely upset she had not been informed of it.

After failing to reply to several letters from her solicitor urging that visas be issued, the department had replied on June 16th last by simply enclosing copies of the August 2005 letters, she said.

On June 24th, 2008, an official from the "family reunification section" of the department said the visas for her husband and children would be available at the Irish Embassy in Addis Ababa, but when her family arrived there on June 30th, there were no visas.

Her solicitor again wrote to the department on July 1st seeking confirmation by July 7th that the visas would be issued or else legal proceedings would be initiated. No reply was received to that letter or to a reminder of July 8th.

In those circumstances, she said she had no alternative but to bring her judicial review proceedings against the Minister for Justice.

Mr Justice John Hedigan ordered last week that the department should explain matters to the court. When the case was mentioned this week to Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan, counsel for the department said the visas would be reissued and it was expected this would resolve matters. The case was returned to tomorrow when the court will be updated on progress.

In her action, the woman claims failure to inform her of the 2005 decision on the visas breaches provisions of the Refugee Act 1996, the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.