Case over passport renewal application by Irish-born child resolved

A High Court case brought over the failure to decide a passport renewal application by an Irish-born seven-year-old boy currently in Belarus with his mother has been resolved.

The case, by Abdul Malik Bekmirzaev, was resolved on the basis a decision will be made by the Department of Foreign Affairs on whether it will renew the boy's passport.

The boy and his parents left Ireland and moved to Syria some years ago. The boy's father Alexandr Bekmirzaev is believed to have gone to fight for the Islamic State terror group.

The boy and his mother, Iryna Paltarzhytskaya, were deported to Belarus from a refugee camp in Turkey in January. He and his mother want to return to Ireland over their concerns about the Belarus government's poor response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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The boy’s Irish passport was confiscated by the Turkish authorities. An application to renew the passport was made last February.

When no decision was made, judicial review proceedings were launched last May against the Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Justice.

The boy sought orders requiring the Minister for Foreign Affairs to issue him with a new Irish passport, or make a determination on his application.

It was claimed the exceptional delay in making a decision has endangered the boy’s health and well-being.

When the action came before Mr Justice Charles Meenan on Monday, he was informed by Michael Lynn SC, instructed by solicitor Wendy Lyon, for the boy, it had been resolved on the basis the Irish authorities will make a decision on the renewal application.

In the proceedings, it was argued that the boy’s passport was being withheld because the Minister for Justice intends to revoke Alexandr Bekmirzaev’s Irish citizenship

This was because the Department of Justice believes a 2001 marriage by Mr Bekmirzaev to a British national was one of convenience. That marriage had enabled Mr Bekmirzaev to remain in Ireland and ultimately obtain Irish citizenship in 2010.

That first marriage was dissolved in early 2010, and later that year the boy’s parents were married in an ceremony in Belarus.

The court heard Alexandr Bekmirzaev, who converted in Islam in the 1990s, came to Ireland from Belarus in 1999. He departed for Islamic State-controlled Syria to allegedly fight for the group shortly after his son’s birth in April 2013.

The family reunited in Syria in 2014 where they lived together, until the ‘caliphate’ was defeated in 2018. The family was then split up.

Mr Bekmiraev was imprisoned and his son and wife were moved to various refugee camps before being deported to in Belarus . His family say they have not heard from Mr Bekmirzaev for some time and fear he is dead.

Issues concerning legal costs were adjourned to later this month.