Post
by zeke1015 » Sun Jan 06, 2008 1:11 pm
there is the story:
GABRIEL and Christelle J*****'s is an unlikely love story. Just before Christmas, it received an unusual endorsement in the High Court.
The couple had spent over a year in legal "limbo", broke and living in a Rathmines bedsit, with a baby on the way.
Gabriel, from India, had been refused both residency and a work permit. He faced possible deportation. In the meantime, his wife, Christelle, who gave birth to a daughter in October, has been supporting the family on her maternity benefit.
Christelle is French, and believed she was entitled, under an EU "free movement" directive, to have her husband live with her in Ireland. So late last year, the couple sued the Department of Justice.
In December, the Department of Justice backed down. Despite having previously refused Gabriel various types of visa on four separate occasions, the department offered him full "EU Treaty" rights, including five-year residency. The department agreed to pay their costs, likely to be close to 20,000, and the couple can still take a case for damages arising from Gabriel not having been able to work here.
But there was one condition. The department demanded a confidentiality clause in the settlement agreement.
Asked about this by the Sunday Tribune, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said such confidentiality clauses were "routinely" included in settlement agreements.
He warned: "Breaches of the terms of settlement, including the confidentiality clause, are taken very seriously by the department."
The J*****s, however, refused to accept the confidentiality clause, and the department ultimately agreed to the settlement without it.
The J*****s were not alone. Hundreds of couples found themselves in the same situation last year, as a result of a government regulation that said that EU citizens married to people from outside the EU would have to live together elsewhere in the EU before being entitled to settle in Ireland.
A number of these couples have taken cases against the department. Just before Christmas, a large number of these cases were settled, at significant cost to the state.
The department has refused to provide details of the number and cost of these cases, saying they were sub judice.
However, the fact that many of them were being settled by the department was stated in court by the department's counsel, according to legal documents seen by the Sunday Tribune.
One law firm, Brophy Solicitors, settled seven such cases (including the that of the J*****s) against the Department of Justice on 19 December, at a total cost to the state that could reach 200,000.
Kevin Brophy said: "This was an openand-shut case, yet the Department brought it right to the steps of the court, purely in an attempt to scare the J****s away."
He said the department was responsible for "clogging up" the High Court by refusing visa applications from these couples, forcing them to go to the court.
The J*****s based their case on an EU directive that says that EU citizens have the right to free movement with their families.
When the government transposed this directive into Irish law, it added the requirement that EU citizens who wished to live in Ireland with spouses from outside the EU would have to prove that they had lived together in another EU country first.
This targeted so-called "sham marriages". It was believed that some men from outside the EU were paying to marry women from EU accession countries in order to become legal in Ireland.
But many legitimate couples, like the J*****s, were caught in the measure.
Gabriel J*****s said he knew that there were "marriages of convenience" happening, but the legislation designed to counter them was "like using a hammer to crack a nut."
"We felt like we were stuck in some gulag in North Korea, and not in a part of so-called modern Europe."
Christelle J*****n has been living and working in Ireland for six years.
Gabriel, an architect, was working as an urban planner in the US. The couple met online, corresponded and, after a series of holidays together, including a visit to Gabriel's parents in India, got engaged.
Gabriel found an architectural firm willing to sponsor him for a work permit, but his application was so delayed in the Department of Justice that the job fell through. Then Gabriel was refused a tourist visa to Ireland, with the official refusal stating that he was considered a security risk.
Eventually, Christelle travelled to marry Gabriel in India. Gabriel secured a temporary spouse's visa from the Irish embassy, and they came to Ireland together.
By the time Gabriel's application for residency was refused, Christelle was pregnant. Then Gabriel was refused a renewal of his temporary visa, because Christelle's maternity benefit would not be enough to support both of them.
It took a court case to win what they believe they were always entitled to.
"We felt completely trapped and frightened during what should have been the happiest period of our lives, ", says Gabriel. "Now, we hope our situation will give hope to others.
"After three years of being here and there, trying to be together, now we can finally get on with our lives."
