The Supreme Court has unanimously overturned deportation orders made by the Minister for Justice in relation to five Nigerian children, in a judgment that has likely implications for many other cases.
The court said the Minister was not entitled to use the principle of family unity against children seeking refugee status.
The Minister had argued that, where he had refused asylum to a parent, he was then entitled to deport their children in pursuit of the principle of family unity.
The court was giving its reserved judgment allowing the children's appeal against a High Court decision dismissed their challenge to the Minister's decision of August 2002 to make deportation orders in relation to them.
The family arrived in Ireland in 1998 and the children's mother applied almost immediately for asylum and was ultimately refused. No individual applications for asylum were made by the children, then aged 12, 8, 6 and four-year-old twins.
Having rejected the mother's application, the Minister in 2002 made deportation orders in relation to the mother and all five children.
The five-judge court's decision rested on the single legal point that there was no "refusal" by the Minister, as required by the 1999 Immigration Act, of applications by the children for refugee status. The Minister had refused an application made by the mother but had treated that application as made on behalf of the children also.
In his judgment, Mr Nial Justice Fennelly said the single issue in the case was whether the children were persons whose applications for asylum had been refused on the date the deportation orders were made. It was clear the Minister gave no consideration at all to the status of the children as being applicants for asylum.
The judge stressed he was not convinced of the family's argument that, under the Refugee Act 1996, only a single person could apply for asylum but said it was not necessary to reach a conclusion on that issue in this case.
He further ruled the Minister was not entitled to make deportation orders in pursuit of a policy of family unity.
The judge said it would be "simply inhuman" to allow a person remain in the State and deport their children. The principle of family unity was central to asylum and immigration practices and policies. If an asylum seeker secured refugee status, the consequence was that their children would also.