Hundreds of immigrant parents of Irish citizen children have been told they face being deported and have three weeks to make final humanitarian cases for permission to remain in the State.
The Department of Justice says it has issued 400 notices to non-EU immigrants whose outstanding claims for residency as parents of Irish citizens have effectively been cancelled in recent weeks.
Immigrant support groups have expressed concerns to the Minister for Justice that these immigrants are not entitled to State-funded legal advice in preparing their submissions for leave to remain on humanitarian grounds.
The Irish Times has learned that some legal advisers in Dublin are charging fees of between €2,000 and €4,000 to immigrants for assistance with humanitarian leave applications.
The authorities announced just over a week ago that a backlog of some 11,000 claims for residency from non-EU immigrant parents solely on the basis that they have become parents of Irish citizen children have been nullified. The change in how these cases are handled follows a landmark Supreme Court ruling last January that non-EU immigrants do not have the automatic right to reside in Ireland solely because they are parents of Irish citizens. Until then, it had been the practice to grant residency to immigrants who parented a baby born in Ireland and 10,145 people have been granted such leave to remain. The right to apply for residency on what had become known as the "Irish born child" basis was withdrawn last February.
While the immigrants' citizen children cannot legally be deported, they will in practice be obliged to leave the country with their parents. The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has said he will not be "blackmailed" by parents threatening to leave their citizen children behind and, if necessary, the courts will compel them to take the children with them.
The 400 letters issued last week inform people that the Minister proposes to deport them, and tell them they have 15 working days to make written representations for temporary leave to remain on humanitarian grounds. These grounds can include their parentage of an Irish citizen, the length of time they have lived in the State and their family and domestic circumstances.
Groups working with immigrants say people need legal advice and assistance to make such complex submissions. However, a spokesman for the Department of Justice said applicants would not be entitled to State-funded legal advice in making these applications. A lo-call telephone line established by the department received about 100 calls per day last week, according to the spokesman.
Mr Derek Stewart, a solicitor who handles many immigration cases, said the Minister's offer to pay towards the costs of voluntary repatriation but not towards the legal costs of assisting those who want, and in many cases deserve to stay, "will undoubtedly be taken by many as a sad omen of the future that awaits those who refuse this flight home".
Ms Hilkka Becker, the legal consultant of the Immigrant Council of Ireland, said there was panic and confusion among immigrants seeking advice on this issue. "We have had a huge number of phone calls from people all over the country wanting to know what will happen next and whether they will be deported," she said.
Ms Becker said applicants for leave to remain on humanitarian grounds needed well prepared legal submissions with legal arguments.