Man can be deported to Nigeria after multiple failed attempts to stay in Ireland, court rules
High Court Reporters
A Nigerian man who married and got separated in Ireland in what was described as a "marriage of convenience" and who sought to remain in Ireland can be deported after his latest attempt to remain here failed in a process he began over 16 years ago.
The man (44) claimed that the Minister for Justice erred in concluding he was lawfully resident in the State on dates during January 2018 and January 2022.
In her High Court judgment, Justice Nessa Cahill said the significance of the man's claim lay in the fact that it is only if the applicant was "undocumented" for that continuous period that he would be eligible to avail of a scheme regularising the status of long-term undocumented people in the State.
He pleaded that, given that his residence card was revoked in 2016, and that subsequent temporary permissions were granted solely for the purpose of the review of that decision, they could not be deemed to have been independently valid.
This meant, he argued, he was never lawfully resident here for the relevant period and met the criteria for the scheme.
The applicant was born in Nigeria in 1982, came to Ireland in October 2009, and applied for asylum, which was refused; he did not appeal.
On January 11th 2010, however, he gave notification of an intention to marry a Latvian national resident in the State and the two got married later that month.
In April 2011, he applied for a residence card as the spouse of an EU national, and in October 2011, a five-year card was granted.
However, in September 2015, their separation was formalised, and in August 2016, he applied for a new card.
His application for renewal was refused, but he was granted temporary permission to reside in the State while he appealed. His appeal was refused "on the basis of findings of fraud or abuse of rights, as the Minister formed the view that the marriage was not a genuine subsisting marriage".
Permission for judicial review was granted, but this again failed with the High Court finding that it was within the Minister's discretion to decide the marriage was one of convenience, and a deportation order was issued in February 2020. He appealed this order but again failed.
In January 2022, the scheme for long-term "undocumented" people and their dependents to regularise their status came into effect.
Applicants needed to show "undocumented" residence for the four-year period from 31 January 2018 to 31 January 2022. He then maintained that the temporary permissions he received during this period were invalid as the State had found he had engaged in a marriage of convenience and that he was therefore "undocumented".
He then took a second judicial review after he was refused access to the scheme, which was this week dismissed by Justice Cahill.
In dismissing his latest challenge, the Judge said there had been no revocation of the temporary permissions, but that they had expired and were renewed for appeals and review requests taken. She said they were granted at the discretion of the Minister and not by any EU imposition or statutory right.
"The suggestion that the Minister 'must' have revoked the temporary permissions if he was revoking the residence card is without a basis in fact," she said.
She upheld the Minister's decision that the man was here legally on dates within the relevant period, said the temporary permissions had been granted independently of the decision to revoke the residence card and upheld the Minister's refusal.
