THE MOTHERS of several Irish citizen children have called on the Government to facilitate their husbands’ speedy return to the country following their deportation.
Many were failed asylum seekers, while others had circumvented immigration rules.
The request follows this week’s ruling in the European Court of Justice, Europe’s highest court, that the non-European Union parents of an EU citizen child must be allowed to live and work in that EU state so as not to deprive them of the rights of EU citizenship.
Halyna Ivasiv, a mother of three young children, said yesterday the State should return her Nigerian husband, Pantaeleon Agbath, as soon as possible to allow them to live as a family in Tralee, Co Kerry.
She has three children, Jessica (6), Emily (3) and Jonathan (2). Jessica was born in March 2004, when any child born in Ireland had a right to Irish citizenship. This automatic right was removed in June 2004. Jonathan is an Irish citizen because Ms Ivasiv had resided lawfully in Ireland for four years before his birth. Emily did not qualify for Irish citizenship.
Her husband was deported in February.
“We have been together for nine years and married in April 2007 when he came to Ireland,” said Ms Ivasiv, who is from Ukraine and works as a seamstress.
“My husband looked after the children for me when I worked and without him I’ve been relying on friends to look after my children. But this can’t go on forever and now I’m looking for a childminder, which is expensive. If I can’t work then I’ll have to live on benefits,” said Ms Ivasiv.
Olaitan Oloyede, who lives with her three Irish citizen children in Co Kildare, faces a similar childcare problem following her husband’s decision to leave the State voluntarily when he was served with a deportation order.
“He looked after the children while I worked. Now it is a nightmare trying to keep my job and look after the children,” she said.
“I was pregnant with my third child when he got the order and it became really stressful. Every time there was a knock on the door we thought it could be the immigration police. So he went back to Nigeria in December.”
Mrs Oloyede said her 10-year-old son, Mayowa, was deeply affected by the loss of his father. “He keeps asking me ‘am I different from other children. Am I Irish?’ The whole thing is a nightmare,” she said.
Even though her husband, Abiodun Oloyede, did not apply for asylum and left the State voluntarily, he was prohibited from returning to Ireland because he was deported for being in the county illegally.
Karen Berkeley, a solicitor who is representing Mrs Oloyede, said she planned to submit an application to revoke the deportation order based on this week’s Zambrano judgment at the European Court of Justice.
“If this is successful we will apply for a visa for him to return,” she said.
The Department of Justice said it could not say how many parents of Irish citizen children had been deported. But it said 20 Irish citizen children had left the State in the company of parents facing deportation orders since 2005.
A spokeswoman said it could not comment on whether deported parents would be returned following the European ruling.
Judge John Cooke, one of the High Court’s main asylum lawyers, called on the State to take a formal position on the Zambrano judgment as soon as possible to provide clarity on a large number of pending cases involving parents.
Rosanna Flynn, spokeswoman for Residents Against Racism, said the State should fly every parent of Irish citizen children back.
John Stanley, chairman of the Irish Refugee Council, welcomed the judgment.