We’ve previously referred to the involvement of several members of the Irish Immigration Lawyers Association (IILA) in a case which may become a significant challenge to the state’s ability to sanction persons it had decided were not legitimately resident within the state.
The case in question involved the successful appeal of a taxi driver against the refusal by the Gardaí to renew his license on the basis that the Minister for Justice had previously revoked his permission to remain in the state in January 2022. The Minister had come to that decision because the taxi driver, a Bangladeshi national named Imranul Hassan Shuvo, had submitted a “fraudulent” claim based on what was described as a “marriage of convenience.”
In the decision, Justice Marie Quirke found that all other considerations in the case and the validity of Superintendent McCauley’s refusal of the licence were overridden by the fact that Mr. Shuvo’s data protection rights under EU Charter Personal Data Rights legislation had been breached by the manner in which Superintendent McCauley had obtained the information and that he had failed to properly inform Shuvo of his seeking of such information.
We await to see what effect Justice Quirke’s decision will have on a large number of pending appeals due to come to court over the next number of months.
The IILA describes itself as an “association of fully qualified Immigration Solicitors” which “exists in order to promote and improve advice and representation in immigration, citizenship , asylum and EU Free Movement of Persons Law.” Thomas Coughlan, of Thomas Coughlan and Company, has been the Chairman of the IILA since 2021, the year the IILA launched.
When the IILA was launched in 2021, at an event held on zoom due to the then ongoing Covid restrictions, it was addressed virtually by then Taoiseach Micheál Martin. Martin was very warm in his comments, stating that he wished to congratulate the group on forming, that he wished everyone involved “great success in your professional careers,” and that the group would provide “an important forum for education and information sharing to maintain high standards of professionalism and expertise.”
Martin particularly welcomed the input of the IILA on the area of immigration policy, describing them as a key stakeholder. Martin also brought up the Government’s commitment to deliver a “regularisation scheme for the undocumented,” which he promised would be announced before the end of the year.
And so it came to be. The scheme was announced by Minister for Justice Helen McEntee as a draft proposal on April 21, 2021 – right in the middle of the Covid lockdown restrictions. Whilst it was immediately welcomed by the migrancy NGOs, and some in the media, there is little evidence that there was any general public demand for illegal immigrants to be given an amnesty.
Justice Tara Burns, who at the time oversaw the Asylum List on the High Court but has since been appointed to the Court of Appeal, also addressed the members of the IILA at the launch.
Justice Burns welcomed the creation of the group, and praised the ability of IILA members for their “noble and worthwhile” work, before speaking of her own experience as a “naturalised person” who remembered “the concern and worry of my parents awaiting my citizenship papers, and the delight when the ‘alien’ Tara Burns was declared to be a citizen of Ireland.”
Justice Burns advised the IILA to “grab…with two hands” the invitation from the then Taoiseach Martin to have input on policy issues. This, Justice Burns said, was the means to cause “real and effective change to occur for migrants coming to this country.”
Other members of the judiciary who have addressed meetings of the IILA, including a joint event with the Immigration, Asylum and Citizenship Bar Association (IACBA), include Justice Charles Meenan and Justice Siobhán Stack – who has given lectures on asylum law at King’s Inns.
Meenan was the High Court judge who declared that the failure of the state to provide accommodation for an Afghan applicant for International Protection as “completely unacceptable.” His decision was welcomed on behalf of the Irish Refugee Council by Katie Mannion and Virginija Petrauskaite, both of whom had represented the applicant in this case.
A December 2023 training event was to be addressed by Cindy Carroll, deputy chairperson of the International Protection Appeals Tribunal.
At the IILA conference held in June this year, Justice James O’Donohoe spoke of the need for legal practitioners in the field to be seen to be “protecting the legal system itself with the ultimate goal of justice for those who need it.” Wendy Lyon, a former member of the Sinn Féin staff in Leinster House who was active in the campaign to legalize abortion as a director of the Irish Family Planning Association, also addressed the conference on the difficulties of getting visas for applicants in a presentation titled “Visa Applications: The Third Circle of Hell.”
IILA committee member, and founding member, Carol Sinnott, of Sinnott Solicitors has had a particularly impactful career.
Her firm describes itself as “Ireland’s leading immigration law firm,” with a speciality in “obtaining Irish Citizenship/Naturalisation.” Sinnott, on her LinkedIn, provides a list of the work the firm does which includes “Complex deportation matters and contesting the issuing and validity of Deportation and Transfer Orders” and in “claiming damages for those who suffered from living in Direct Provision.”
She specifically notes the firm’s role in cases such as Djolo v Minister for Justice and Equality, Donatus v Refugee Appeals Tribunal, Gavrilyuk v Minister for Justice and Equality, Gica and Agaci v the Refugee Appeals Commissioner, Layhani v Minister for Justice, and Mahmood and Atif v Minister for Justice.
The latter case is interesting as it involved similar issues to Shuvo where residency here was claimed on the basis that a person with no prior connection to the Irish state had made a subsequent claim on the basis of EU citizenship through pre Brexit United Kingdom residency. Both cases involved marriage to a UK citizen. Sinnotts celebrated this case as one which would have “major implications for the timeliness of processing of family reunification visa requests.”
Interestingly Thomas Coughlan noted, during the launch of the IILA, that he thought it “wonderful that the Refugee Legal Service, NGOs, and the Chief State Solicitor’s Office are part of the association and have joined as members.”