The persons concerned are a husband and wife who entered the State as students on separate dates in 2005 and were granted permission to remain until 23rd November, 2006 and 22nd February, 2006 respectively. They have remained in the State without permission since then. Consequently, in accordance with the provisions of Section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended), the persons concerned were notified, by separate letters dated 2nd February, 2009, that it was proposed to make deportation orders in respect of them. They were each 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 written representations to the then Minister setting out the reasons why they should not have deportation orders made against them.
While substantial written representations have been submitted by and on behalf of the persons concerned, a representative of my Department wrote to the persons concerned on 10th October, 2013 requesting certain documentation and clarifications. Upon receipt of such documentation and clarifications, the immigration case files of the persons concerned will be decided by reference to the provisions of 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. All representations submitted will be considered before final decisions are made. Once decisions have been made, these decisions, and the consequences of the decisions, will be conveyed in writing to the persons concerned.
Given that none of the children of the persons concerned can claim an entitlement to Irish citizenship, it is difficult to see how the European Court of Justice Judgment in the Zambrano case would have any bearing on the immigration cases of the persons concerned.
Queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to the INIS of my Department by e-mail using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been specifically established for this purpose. This service enables up to date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek information by way of the Parliamentary Questions process. The Deputy may consider using the e-mail service except in cases where the response from the INIS is, in the Deputy’s view, inadequate or too long awaited.
