MINISTER FOR Justice Dermot Ahern has agreed to immediately release a 21-year-old master’s degree student from jail following a High Court case yesterday, which heard an application for a judicial review of a decision to deport her.
Counsel for the State has also agreed to consider whether the Refugee Applications Commissioner should receive, process and determine an asylum application made by student Rukiyat Tope Smith on March 2nd this year.
Ms Tope Smith, who arrived in the Republic as an unaccompanied minor in 2002, walked free yesterday after spending 53 days at Mountjoy prison for evading a deportation order made in 2004.
Ms Tope Smith, who is studying for a master’s degree in strategic management at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), was 13 when she first arrived in Ireland from Nigeria to be reunited with her mother and sister, who were living in the Republic at that time.
She applied to the High Court yesterday for leave to seek an order quashing the decision of the Minister to refuse to revoke the deportation order. She is also seeking an order obliging the Refugee Applications Commissioner to receive, process and determine her own application for asylum.
Her counsel Mark de Blacam SC told the court she was a “highly educated individual”, who had thrived since arriving in the Republic. He said she had completed a junior and leaving certificate at Mount Carmel secondary school before obtaining an honours degree in accounting at DIT.
At this stage, she has no, or no substantial connection, with Nigeria, said Mr de Blacam.
He said no proper consideration was ever given to Ms Tope Smith’s case that she is a refugee because her mother simply tacked on her daughter’s asylum application to her own asylum case, which had already been rejected.
The court heard Ms Tope Smith was effectively abandoned by her mother in 2005, when she was 16, and was told last year that her mother was dead.
Mr de Blacam said her rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights were breached by the Minister.
Counsel for the State Patrick O’Reilly SC said Ms Tope Smith had lied to the court about where she stayed from 2005 onwards following her mother’s disappearance. He also said there was no evidence that her mother had died.
Mr O’Reilly disputed Ms Tope Smith’s contention that no consideration had ever been given to her own case that she was a refugee. He said her mother had clearly asked for her case to be attached to her own asylum application.
Mr Justice Sean Ryan questioned Mr O’Reilly on this point and asked him to take instructions from the Minister on the matter.
After a short adjournment, Mr O’Reilly said the Minister would agree to the immediate release of Ms Tope Smith. The Minister would also consider whether Ms Tope Smyth’s asylum application should be considered by the Refugee Applications Commissioner.
Mr Justice Ryan adjourned the application for leave to seek a judicial review.