A Chilean family living in Ireland since last May have secured leave to challenge a deportation order in the courts. The family, a father, mother and three children, live in rented accommodation at Cahercalla, Ennis, Co Clare, and have taken High Court proceedings against the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
Yesterday, Mr Bill Shipsey SC, for the family, told Mr Justice Lavan his clients were seeking an order directing the Minister to consider their applications for refugee status in accordance with the UN Convention on the Status of Refugees.
In an affidavit, Ms Noeleen Blackwell, solicitor, said her clients were Chilean nationals. The father was an engineer who had worked as a building contractor before leaving Chile, while the mother had been a teacher. They had enjoyed a high standard of living. In May last, the family flew from Santiago to Gatwick, London, she said. They had a firm intention of travelling on to Ireland. The original travel tickets had been handed into the immigration office at Henry Street Garda station, Limerick.
Following their arrival in Ireland, they made an application for refugee status. They arrived in Ireland with limited money and very little English.
Ms Blackwell said the family's decision to leave Chile was the result of events in preceding months which had given rise to genuine, grave and sincerely held fears of persecution at the hands of persons unknown in Chile.
Her clients believed those persons were associated with, or were agents of, the police. The application for refugee status was considered by the Department of Justice, the solicitor said. An appointed officer determined the family were obliged, under the Dublin Convention, to make the applications in the UK by virtue of the fact that they had travelled from there to Ireland. That decision was appealed, but was upheld by an appeals officer in November last.
Ms Blackwell said that on Dec ember 11th last, she wrote to the Department requesting that no steps be taken to remove the parents from the jurisdiction pending an application for judicial review of the decision.
The Department was not willing to give any undertaking in accordance with the request, she said. On January 19th, the Department issued deportation orders. Ms Blackwell said her clients' reasons for not considering the UK a safe place for their family had not been taken into account.
Under a convention and protocol of the UN relating to the status of refugees and pursuant to the Dublin Convention and customary international law, the Minister was obliged to consider the family's reasons for not believing the UK to be a safe place, the solicitor submitted.
Mr Justice Lavan granted leave to apply, by way of judicial review, for orders directing the Minister to consider, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Status of Refugees, the family's application for refugee status.
Mr Justice Lavan: granted leave to apply for orders directing Minister