A DECISION by the Minister for Justice to affirm the deportation order handed down to a single mother from Brazil could expose her two-year-old Irish citizen son to extreme poverty, drug abuse and danger in a Brazilian slum, the High Court has heard.
Counsel for Marcia Silva Oliveria Freitas (32), in Roscommon, said yesterday the constitutional and human rights of her infant son would be breached if she was deported to her home country.
Michael Lynn told the court that the son, who is an Irish citizen because his father is legally resident in the country, would have no option but to follow his mother to Brazil if the deportation order is executed. This amounts to his “de facto expulsion” from his country of citizenship and would expose her son to dire poverty and danger as his mother’s family live in a slum in Anapolis, Brazil.
An affidavit presented to the court by the mother says she fears the boy could become involved in drug gangs if he is forced to leave Ireland and live in Anapolis.
“My own brother has become addicted to crack and my son there . . . is witnessing this. He has already become difficult to handle, he is hanging out with other children who are involved in selling drugs and I fear he will be unable to avoid falling into the drugs trap,” says the affidavit.
Ms Freitas came to Ireland in February 2003 as a visitor but overstayed her visa and engaged in casual work to send money home to Brazil to care for her other son, who is 13 years old. She returned to Brazil in 2006 for a short time but came back to Ireland because of the dire living conditions.
While living in Roscommon she formed a relationship with a Brazilian man, who is working legally in the State. She fell pregnant and gave birth in August 2008 to her son, who is an Irish citizen by reason of birth.
She has little contact now with the boy’s father but says she hopes this will change over time and her son will develop a relationship with him.
Ms Freitas was served with a deportation order in October 2008. She applied for a revocation of this order. But the deportation order was affirmed by the Minister in April 2009.
Ms Freitas is seeking leave to apply for judicial review of an earlier decision by the Minister for Justice to refuse to revoke the deportation order.
Mr Lynn told the court the decision to affirm the deportation order was “irrational” given the dangers in Brazil. This breached his right to grow up in the country in which he is a citizen of, he said.
Sara Moorhead SC, for the Minister, said the decision to affirm the deportation order was reasonable, rational and proportionate as he had followed the principles for assessment set in a number of Supreme Court judgments.
Judge Sean Ryan reserved his judgment.