Ruling paves way for deportations

In a decision that has implications for thousands of asylum seekers and other non-EU nationals, the judges ruled 5-2 that having an Irish-born baby did not confer an automatic right to remain in the country for others.
There are 10,265 applications on hand from various categories of migrants as a result of Irish-born babies, but McDowell has said there will be no wholesale deportations. He pledged, rather, that applicants would be a dealt with on a case-by-case basis and in a “compassionate” manner.
Opposition spokesmen, human rights and child-care activists have called for the government to be humane and there have been calls for an amnesty.
Babies born on the island of Ireland are constitutionally entitled to citizenship of the Republic.
Justice Susan Denham said the kernel of issue was a decision on “balancing rights of the nation, of individuals and of the family unit.”
Many of those seeking permission to stay have already been turned down for asylum in other EU countries, principally Britain. For them, deportations would be made under the EU’s so-called Dublin Convention that stipulates people have to apply for refugee status in the first EU country they arrive in.
Both the Czech couple and the Nigerian man involved in the Supreme Court case had been turned down by the British asylum process and they then traveled to Ireland. They had been due to be deported back across the Irish Sea.
The government breathed a sigh of relief after the judgment. It had been considering a constitutional referendum because of abuse of the system because of the perceived loophole for parents and siblings of the infant.
The Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner says 45-50 percent of female asylum seekers are pregnant when they apply for refugee status.
Since a previous Supreme Court ruling in 1990, the immigration authorities have granted residency based on parentage to thousands of non-nationals.
A Department of Justice spokesman said the right of birth feature of Irish citizenship law is unique in the EU and unusual worldwide. The U.S. also gives citizenship to babies born there but there are no rights for other members of the family.
The prosperity of recent years has resulted in almost 1,000 asylum seekers arriving every month. About 90 percent of asylum applications are turned down. The main countries of origin are Nigeria and Romania.
In addition, 40,000 people from over 100 countries were granted permits to work in the country last year.
Last year, 4,027 non-EU citizens were granted residency on the basis of being parents of an Irish citizen child — 3,077 of them asylum seekers and 950 other migrants in the country.
There were 8,645 citizen-baby applications during the year.
While the ruling generally brings Ireland into line with the U.S. policy, the five lengthy written judgments ruling out automatic rights have provided room for legal argument as a result of the constitutional recognition given to the family as the “natural, primary and fundamental unit of society.”
McDowell said every application would be considered on its individual merits but there had been people who had been trying to take advantage of what was regarded as a loophole in the law.
“Undoubtedly some people exploited what they thought to be, and they now turn out to be mistake in this, a rule that coming to Ireland and having a child here guaranteed you a right to remain in Ireland,” McDowell told RTE.