The person concerned arrived in the State on 19th July, 2003 and applied for asylum on 21st July, 2003. His application was refused following consideration of his case by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and, on appeal, the Refugee Appeals Tribunal.
Subsequently, in accordance with Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended), the person concerned was notified, by letter dated 11th November 2004, that the then Minister proposed to make a Deportation Order in respect of him. He was given the options, to be exercised within 15 working days, of leaving the State voluntarily, of consenting to the making of a Deportation Order or of making representations to the Minister setting out the reasons why he should not have a Deportation Order made against him.
The case of the person concerned was examined under Section 3(6) of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended) and Section 5 of the Refugee Act 1996 (as amended) on the prohibition of refoulement. Consideration was given to all representations submitted on his behalf before a Deportation Order was made in respect of him on 11th March, 2005. This Order was served by registered post dated 1st April, 2005 which placed a legal obligation on the person concerned to attend at the Offices of the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB), 13-14 Burgh Quay, Dublin 2 on 14th April, 2005 in order to make arrangements for his deportation from the State. The person concerned failed to attend as directed and was therefore classified as a person evading his deportation.
On 19th April, 2005, the person concerned applied for asylum in the United Kingdom. Once it was established by the UK immigration authorities that the person concerned had an immigration history in this State, arrangements were made to have the person concerned returned to this State. The person in question was formally returned to Ireland on 27th June, 2005. By letter dated 19th February, 2007, the legal representative of the person concerned lodged an application for the revocation of the Deportation Order pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(11) of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended) and also lodged an application for Subsidiary Protection pursuant to the provisions of the European Communities (Eligibility for Protection) Regulations 2006.
Following consideration of the Section 3(11) application, a decision was taken by the then Minister to affirm the existing Deportation Order. In relation to the application for Subsidiary Protection, the legal representative of the person concerned was advised that as his client was the subject of a Deportation Order, he must apply to the Minister, under Regulation 4(2) of the Subsidiary Protection Regulations, to exercise his discretion to enable an application for Subsidiary Protection to be considered. The relevant legal representative was also advised that any such application would need to be supported by evidence of new facts or circumstances relevant to the person concerned or to his country of origin which had arisen since the original decision to deport was made.
By letter dated 7th December, 2007, the legal representative of the person concerned lodged an application under Regulation 4(2) of the Subsidiary Protection Regulations. This application was carefully considered before a decision was taken to refuse the application. The person concerned, and his legal representative, were advised of this decision by letter dated 13th March, 2008. This communication also directed the person concerned to attend at the Offices of the GNIB on 27th March, 2008 in order to make arrangements for his removal from the State.
The person concerned remains the subject of a Deportation Order the effect of which is that he must leave the State and remain thereafter out of the State. The enforcement of the Deportation Order is an operational matter for the Garda National Immigration Bureau. The Deputy will appreciate that in light of the above clarification the person concerned could not be deemed to have an outstanding application for residency.
I should remind the Deputy that queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to INIS by Email using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been specifically established for this purpose. The service enables up-to-date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek this information through the more administratively expensive Parliamentary Questions process.