On Wednesday, a non-Arab Darfuri journalist who fled Sudan with her three children amid concerns the family would be killed due to her views on race and politics, won a High Court challenge from being returned to the Republic of Ireland.
Mr. Justice Stephens quashed a decision by the UK Border Agency to send ALJ and her three children A,B and C, back to the Republic of Ireland on the basis that it was in the best interests of the family to remain in Northern Ireland. .
ALJ gave evidence of a being a political journalist and writer who suffered a series of arrests, assaults and a miscarriage.
In April 2010, ALJ and her three children left Sudan with the help of traffickers, Mr. Justice Stephens heard. Her husband had to remain in Sudan, and ALJ is unaware if he is still alive. ALJ and her three children disembarked in Dublin three weeks later.
ALJ was informed that her entitlement to remain in the Republic of Ireland had expired when her bid for refugee status was refused. In July 2011, ALJ and the children travelled to Northern Ireland and applied for asylum in the United Kingdom. When authorities in the Republic of Ireland accepted a request to take ALJ and the three children back to conclude the asylum proceedings in the Republic, a challenge in the Northern Ireland High Court was launched.
The argument that during the asylum of process in Ireland, which can take up to five years, the family would be subject to standards that do not comply with the minimum required set out by the European Union.The current asylum process in the Republic means the applicants would not be able to work. The children at the age of 16 are not entitled to an education, and the family would have to live in hostel accommodation.
For the sake of the children, Mr. Justice Stephens held that the family should remain in Northern Ireland. Mr. Justice Stephens quashed the removal decision. The decision not to assure responsibility for determining the asylum application in the United Kingdom on the basis of a failure to consider the need to safeguard the welfare of children was also quashed by Mr. Justice Stephens.
