Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I thank Deputy Crawford for raising the issue of this family. I have no doubt that what he says is correct, that the mother and children are decent people who were close to the hearts of the community in which they stayed while here.

I want, however, to put a few facts on record. The person referred to by the Deputy and her three children arrived in Ireland on 28 November 2001 and claimed asylum. I have indicated in the course of the last exchange the procedures that were gone through. The Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner considers each case in great detail. If applicants win the right to be considered refugees at that stage, that is the end of the matter. If they lose, they have the right to appeal to the Refugee Appeals Tribunal. If they win at that stage, they are given refugee status and I am not in a position to refuse them. Even at that stage, if applicants are not successful, they are given the opportunity to do one of three things, leave the State voluntarily, consent to being the subject of a deportation order, in which case the State will deport them, or apply to me for humanitarian leave to remain. Those are the three options this family was given.

An application for leave to remain in the State was received by my Department on 21 January 2003. The case was examined under section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 and section 5 — prohibition of refoulement— of the Refugee Act 1996. It was examined at considerable length and the deportation orders were signed in respect of all four family members on 11 February 2005. The family complied with the relevant reporting requirements and were removed on a charter flight to Lagos on the night of 14-15 March 2005.

The situation for families in these circumstances is that when they come to Ireland from Nigeria, they inevitably pass through other EU member states. It costs a lot to move a family from Nigeria to Ireland so much hope is put into the enterprise that they would be allowed to stay in Ireland. When they come here, however, they bypass the queues of people applying for visas and employment permits and enter the community in circumstances where the State undertakes to look after their material needs while they are here. They also come here on one strict condition — if it is found that they are not entitled to refugee status or humanitarian leave to remain, they undertake by way of legal obligation to the State that they will go home. That is the basis of the 1951 convention.

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