A Kosovan widow and her two daughters who went into hiding last year after their asylum claims were rejected have been given a fresh chance to seek refugee status.
Ms Florinda Sylaj and her daughters Eni (5) and Eda (4) have faced deportation for the past eight months after their asylum application was turned down. However, the Department of Justice has recently acceded to the family's request to allow the children to make new asylum claims as individuals, rather than as parties to their mother's claim as had previously been the case.
The Minister will also consider a request from Ms Sylaj to re-enter the refugee determination system on the basis of new information that her late husband's body was found in a mass grave.
The breakthrough occurred in the middle of a High Court hearing brought by the family's solicitor, Mr Cathal O'Neill, this month. The Sylajs began the court action after failing in their bid to have their case for refugee status reconsidered by the Minister last November.
To be granted permission to live in Ireland permanently as a refugee, applicants must show they are fleeing persecution.
Ms Sylaj claims she was subjected to a "sustained and savage campaign of mistreatment" including regular beatings by her late Muslim husband's family, who never accepted her because she was a Catholic.
She also claims that she and her two young daughters were effectively imprisoned by her in-laws, but that she was not able to disclose this information while her initial refugee claim was being processed.
Evidence also emerged recently that the body of Ms Sylaj's late husband was discovered in a mass grave in Kosovo. This information was obtained by a Kosovan asylum-seeker who had lived in Ireland and returned to his native country.
Ms Sylaj believes her husband was killed in the NATO-led war in the Balkan state in 1999, and claims her family would be destitute if forced to return there.
The family, which has been in Ireland for about three years, went into hiding in Dublin last October following an unsuccessful attempt by gardaí to deport them.
The children were withdrawn from classes at Castleknock Educate Together National School in Dublin while they evaded deportation.