The High Court has granted an interim order restraining the deportation yesterday from Dublin airport of a couple and their three children who claimed they would be persecuted and denied medical treatment if returned to Romania.
The couple - Boier Muntean and Lena Rostas - had claimed they were terrified of being deported because Mr Muntean and two of their three sons suffer from epilepsy and, they alleged, they would be denied medical treatment in Romania. They claimed the epilepsy could be life threatening for them if deported.
Mr Justice Michael Peart granted the injunction restraining deportation yesterday when the matter came before him.
In an affidavit, John Gaffney, solicitor for the couple, said he was instructed that they are Roma gypsies who arrived here in May 2005. They had sought refugee status on their arrival but were refused, firstly by the Refugee Applications Commissioner and, on appeal, by the Refugee Appeals Tribunal.
Mr Gaffney said he was instructed the couple were directed, by a letter from the Garda National Immigration Bureau, to report to the bureau's offices at Burgh Quay in October 2005. The couple did not attend because they were terrified of being deported. Mr Gaffney had written to the Minister seeking leave on humanitarian grounds for them to remain in Ireland.
However, he was told yesterday that they were arrested earlier yesterday morning and were at Dublin airport awaiting deportation as the court sat.