The refugee in question made an application for family reunification in respect of her five children under section 18 of the Refugee Act 1996. In support of her application she submitted five passports. During the course of processing this application, questions arose with regard to the authenticity of documentation submitted. Subsequent checks by document experts in the Garda technical bureau concluded that there were doubts concerning the authenticity of the passports.
The family reunification application was refused in July 2005. The passports were forwarded to the Garda National Immigration Bureau for further investigation.