Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 142: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform if he will defer a deportation order in the case of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 8; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35625/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The person concerned arrived in the State on 31st August 2006. She claimed asylum on 1st September 2006 and her application was refused following consideration of her case by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and, on appeal, by the Refugee Appeals Tribunal. The person concerned was informed by letter dated 20th May 2008 that the Minister proposed to make a Deportation Order in respect of her and afforded her three options in accordance with Section 3(3)(b)(ii) of the Immigration Act, 1999 (as amended), namely to leave the State voluntarily, to consent to the making of a Deportation Order or to submit, within 15 working days, written representations to the Minister setting out the reasons why she should not be deported.

Her case was examined under Section 3(6) of the Immigration Act, 1999 (as amended), and Section 5 of the Refugee Act, 1996 (as amended) on the Prohibition of Refoulement. On 21st September 2010 having considered all representations submitted on her behalf, I signed a Deportation Order in respect of her. Notice of this order was served by registered post requiring the person concerned to present themselves at the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB),13-14 Burgh Quay, Dublin 2 on Thursday 14th October 2010 in order to make travel arrangements for her removal from the State.

The effect of the Deportation Order is that the person concerned must leave the State and remain thereafter out of the State. The enforcement of the deportation order is an operational matter for the Garda National Immigration Bureau. The Deputy might wish to note that, in addition to the eleven factors contained in Section 3 (6) of the Immigration Act, 1999 (as amended), I must, as stated earlier, also have regard for Section 5 of the Refugee Act, 1996 (as amended) on the Prohibition of Refoulement before making a deportation order. This essentially means that the safety of returning a person, or refoulement as it is commonly referred to, is fully considered in every case when deciding whether or not to make a deportation order i.e. that a person shall not be expelled from the State or returned in any manner whatsoever to a State where, in my opinion, the life or freedom of that person would be threatened on account of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

My Department uses extensive country of origin information drawn from different independent sources, including the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), in evaluating the safety of making returns to Nigeria and other third countries. In this case, I am entirely satisfied that there are no refoulement related reasons to prevent the deportation of the person concerned. Further, I am satisfied that the application made by the person concerned for asylum and subsequently her representations as to why she should not be deported, together with all refoulement issues, were fairly and comprehensively examined and, as such, the decision to deport her is justified.

I should remind the Deputy that queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to INIS by Email using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been specifically established for this purpose. The service enables up-to-date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek this information through the more administratively expensive Parliamentary Questions process.End of Take