The Minister for Justice failed to take into account the threat the Taliban posed to an Afghan man’s widowed mother and family when refusing his application for family reunification in Ireland, the High Court has ruled.
The man said his family is hostile to the Taliban and a significant part of his case was they are in “extreme danger” from the political and militant group following its 2021 takeover of power, Mr Justice Anthony Barr noted in a decision quashing the Minister’s refusal.
The man said his grandfather had served with the armed forces of the previous regime and that the Taliban had in 2015 abducted his father, who is presumed dead. He said his mother faced “extreme difficulties” looking after his siblings given the Taliban’s prejudicial attitude towards women.
The fact the man has subsidiary protection here was another significant factor not properly considered, the judge held.
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On those grounds, the judge overturned the refusal and directed the man’s application for family reunification visas for his mother and five siblings, aged from nine to 20 years, be reconsidered in line with the court’s findings.
The man came here 10 years ago aged 17 and is working as a chef and restaurant manager. He was refused refugee status but obtained subsidiary protection effective from 2019.
He was previously refused family reunification in 2020 and again in 2021. His judicial review challenge concerned a refusal decision of September 2023.
That refusal cited “reasonable concerns” his family members would be reliant on social welfare payments if permitted to come here. Factors relating to the rights of the State were weightier than those relating to the family’s rights, it said.
The refusal was “not disproportionate” given the State’s right to control the entry, presence, and exit of foreign nationals, subject to international agreements, and to ensure the economic wellbeing of the country, it also said.
In his recently published judgment, Mr Justice Barr said it was agreed the man did not meet the financial threshold to sponsor his family coming here because his €500 weekly income is below the €960 weekly level required.
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The man instead argued his case came within “exceptional” circumstances, normally humanitarian, under which decision-makers have discretion to grant family reunification.
While having subsidiary protection status was not in itself an exceptional circumstance obliging the granting of a visa, it was a “material factor” to be weighed in the balance in considering whether there were exceptional circumstances in this case, the judge said.
The Minister, he held, failed to take the holding of that status into consideration and, on that basis, the court was setting aside the refusal.
He also struck down the refusal on foot of a second main argument that the Minister failed to have any, or any adequate regard, to the severe humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover and particularly failed to have regard to the “hazardous circumstances” of the man’s family given their connection to the previous regime.
