Afghan mechanic cannot afford to have his parents and sister join him here, judge says
High Court Reporters
An Afghan man has failed in a challenge to a refusal to allow him to bring his parents and sister here after the High Court found he does not have the financial resources to support them.
The now 42-year-old man fled Afghanistan in 2014, claiming he was under threat from criminal elements, and after he was jailed for four months when he approached police for help.
He arrived here in 2014 and was refused refugee status, but in 2018 was granted subsidiary protection, which is given where a person is deemed to face a real risk if returned to their home country.
In 2018, he married in Pakistan, and later he applied for long-stay visas here for his wife and son. He has since had another child who was born in this state.
In March 2022, he applied under a new scheme to allow his 80-year-old father, his 51-year-old mother and his 33-year-old sister to enter the State.
His younger brother was also included in the application, but in 2024, he was believed to have drowned along with other migrants trying to reach Gran Canaria from Mauritania by boat.
The scheme, the Afghan Admission Programme, provided for 500 visas to offer temporary residence here to people whose freedom or safety was at risk arising from the situation in Afghanistan after the takeover of power by the Taliban in August 2021.
Up to four members of the family could be applied for. One of the main conditions, however, was that the sponsor had to have sufficient financial resources to support those people.
The applicant in this case, who lives in a two-bed house in Dublin, works as a mechanic earning €450 a week.
The Minister for Justice refused his application to bring his three family members on grounds that he did not have the resources to support them.
They brought a High Court challenge claiming that due to the delay in processing his application, the minister had changed its approach to the scheme and from around Spring 2024, stricter scrutiny was applied to the financial requirements under the programme.
It meant, he claimed, he was effectively treated differently from earlier applicants to the programme.
The minister opposed the challenge.
It was argued that the same financial criteria have been applied since its inception, but that around Spring 2024, the department became aware that some beneficiaries of the scheme had become dependent on the State for support, and as a result, stricter scrutiny was applied.
Justice Anthony Barr rejected the man’s case, saying, among other things, he was not satisfied that the existence of delay was sufficient to entitle him to the relief he sought.
He also said it was not realistic for him to suggest that with earnings of €450 per week, he could pay rent and provide food and other necessities for a total of seven people.
His father was of advanced years and in ill health and was cared for by his wife, while his sister had not provided any evidence of qualifications or how she would obtain employment here, he said.
He was not a qualified mechanic, could not read or write, and worked in a garage owned by another Afghan, he said.
His chances of getting employment on the open market, should he lose that job, would be extremely low, as he would be competing with qualified mechanics who can read and write, the judge said.
