A man who faced imminent deportation yesterday evening was granted a temporary reprieve by Mr Justice Frank Clarke in the High Court.
The court heard that a white South African, Mr N, who for legal reasons cannot be identified, was in a homosexual relationship with a cohabiting partner and suffered from HIV.
Counsel for Mr N told Mr Justice Clarke his client was the subject of a deportation order made by the Minister for Justice in November last year and had been summoned to report to the Garda Immigration Bureau yesterday at 2pm.
He feared that his deportation was imminent and he was seeking an interim injunction restraining his deportation on the grounds the Minister had failed to consider Mr N's application to him to revoke or amend that order.
Counsel said further and new information relating to Mr N's medical condition and proposed treatment in a Dublin hospital had been furnished to the Minister. Mr N had no confirmation or reason to believe the Minister had considered this as he was obliged to in cases of foreign nationals seeking refugee status.
Mr N had only been told that his deportation was merely an operational matter for the Garda National Immigration Bureau.
Mr N claims that if he returned home he would be denied treatment by the South African health authorities which, he claimed, openly discriminated against the treatment of HIV sufferers. He would be faced with the prospect of dying from Aids and the Minister, by failing to consider his application for revocation of the order, had failed to take account of the risk to his life.
Mr Justice Clarke said it was Mr N's case the Minister had failed to consider additional information which might arguably lead him to a different conclusion with regard to the deportation. He granted an interim injunction restraining Mr N's deportation before August 21st.
He allowed Mr N to bring an application on August 22nd for a permanent injunction along with an application, on notice to the State, for leave to legally challenge the order on grounds of the Minister's alleged failure to consider new circumstances.
The State was granted leave to apply for the lifting of the interim injunction before August 22nd.