A WEST African woman has brought a High Court challenge to the constitutionality of provisions of the Immigration Act which make failure to produce passport or other identity documents to gardaí on request a criminal offence.
Liberian national Ebere Dokie (40) is facing charges under section 12 of the 2004 Immigration Act arising out of her arrest at Dublin airport in April 2008 when she and three children attempted to enter the State without passports.
The court was told Ms Dokie had met two of the children the previous day and had agreed to take them to Ireland.
President of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns was told Ms Dokie was charged with failing to produce a passport to establish her identity and failing to give a satisfactory explanation.
The charges are pending before Dublin District Court and could lead to a one-year jail sentence and/or a fine of up to €3,000.
Ms Dokie, who says her Liberian passport was destroyed in a fire in 1989, claims section 12 is unconstitutional and in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights on grounds including it is vague, lacks legal certainty and discriminates against her status as an undocumented non-national.
She wants a permanent injunction restraining the Director of Public Prosecutions from taking any further steps to prosecute her and is also seeking damages.
The DPP contends section 12 is valid, necessary and proportionate and does not breach provisions of the Constitution or the ECHR. Section 12 is a core part of the legislative framework allowing Ireland to control and regulate the entry of foreign-nationals into the State and their obligations while in the State, it is pleaded.
The requirement to produce a passport on seeking entry into a country is an integral feature of the control of immigration worldwide.
The DPP also claims there is no evidence to prove Ms Dokie is who she says she is. A birth certificate provided to the director from Ms Dokie had been analysed and proved not to be authentic, it is alleged.
The action is against the DPP and the prosecuting garda. Ireland and the Attorney General are notice parties to the proceedings while the Irish Human Rights Commission is an amicus curiae – assistant to the court on legal issues.
In an affidavit, Ms Dokie said she was arrested at Dublin airport in April 2008. She had travelled to Ireland from Lagos, Nigeria, via another European country after paying money to an agent to arrange tickets and passports.
She was accompanied by her daughter and two boys, all under eight. The boys were the children of a man she met at Lagos airport, who was also travelling with the agent, and that father begged her to take them to Ireland because their lives were in danger.
She claims the agent also travelled to Dublin and provided the group with red-covered passports but had left them and taken all the documentation after he cleared passport control at Dublin airport.
She initially claimed the boys were her children but later admitted they were not and that she had no passports. The children were placed in the care of the HSE.
The case continues.