A High Court judge has found that a Russian woman, who married an Irishman last year, has established a serious case that she was illegallydeported from the State last April.
Pending the determination of legal proceedings, Ms Justice FinlayGeoghegan granted an injunction restraining the Minister for Justicefrom preventing the woman, who remains in Russia, re-entering the Statein reliance on that deportation order.
The woman, who came here in 1998, married her Irish husband in August2002. The marriage occurred after the deportation order was issued inFebruary 2002. The deportation occurred on April 9th 2003.
Yesterday, outlining the background to the couple's proceedings, thejudge said the woman came here as a student on a Russian passport in1998. That passport was valid to August 2001. In 2000 she applied forrefugee status. There were inconsistences between her application andearlier documents concerning her student visas.
She was refused refugee status and had failed to attend her appealagainst that refusal. A deportation order was made by the Minister onFebruary 25th 2002. The woman was required to present herself fordeportation on March 15th but did not do so.
On August 6th 2002, she married an Irish man in a registry office and onAugust 13th 2002 an applicaiton was made for a visa for her. Shesecured a visa to remain here until August 13th 2003. On her subsequentpassport, a stamp from the Minister for Justcie stated she could remainhere until that date.
On April 6th 2003, she was arrested for deportation and that wasarranged for 11.05am on April 9th 2003. That morning letters werewritten by solicitors on her behalf seeking to prevent the deportationbut they arrived only minutes before the flight left. The earliestletter arrived at 10.46am and a latter to the Minister arrived at10.52am. The deportation had proceeded.
High Court proceedings were initiated and leave was sought to challengethe deportation.