A SINGLE mother can appeal a decision by the Government to deport her because this could lead to the “constructive deportation” of her two-year-old son, who is an Irish citizen, the High Court has ruled.
Judge Seán Ryan yesterday gave Marcia Silva Oliveria Freitas (32), from Brazil, leave to bring a judicial review in the High Court against a decision by the Minister for Justice not to revoke a deportation order issued against her in 2008.
In the ruling, Mr Justice Ryan said the Minister had “failed to consider and weight correctly the balance of opposing interests of the applicants and the State, the possibility that the deportation of the applicant would constitute a de facto or constructive deportation of her Irish citizen child”.
He said the Minister had failed to make adequate inquiry into the practical consequences for the child of relocating to Brazil and the feasibility of exercising his right to reside as a citizen in the State in the event his mother was deported.
In a High Court hearing last November, counsel for Ms Freitas said that deporting the mother could result in her son being exposed to “extreme poverty, drug abuse and danger in a Brazilian slum”.
An affidavit presented to the court by the mother stated how her family lived in a slum in the city of Anapolis in Brazil and her brother had become addicted to crack cocaine.
Ms Freitas came to Ireland in February 2003 as a visitor but overstayed her visa and engaged in casual work to send money home to Brazil to care for her other son, who is 13 years old. She returned to Brazil in 2006 for a short time but came back to Ireland because of the dire living conditions.
While living in Roscommon she formed a relationship with a Brazilian man who is working legally in the State. In August 2008 she gave birth to her son, who is an Irish citizen by reason of birth. Ms Freitas was served with a deportation order in October 2008. She applied for a revocation of this order. But the deportation order was affirmed by the Minister in April 2009.
She has now won leave to apply for judicial review of a decision by the Minister to refuse to revoke the deportation order.
The case is one of scores before the courts of deportation cases involving the parents of Irish citizen children.
Some 20 Irish citizen children have already left the State in the company of their parents as a result of deportation since 2005.
The Immigrant Council of Ireland, which gave legal support to Ms Freitas, called for reforms to provide clear and fair rules that spell out the rights to family life for Irish citizens and immigrants.
“We believe the Irish Government may face legal consequences in the future as a result of the decisions it is making now that result in the effective expulsion of its citizens,” it said.
It added: “Will these children, in the future, have a case that Ireland has unfairly and wrongly denied them opportunities, such as language and educational opportunities, that have severely and negatively affected their lives?”