A YOUNG Chinese woman, who has been living in Ireland for almost eight years, is today facing deportation - all because of a shopping day-trip to Belfast.

Barrister Keith Spencer told the High Court today that Qiaohua Zhang, of Belmayne Park South, Balgriffin, Co Dublin, had been studying in Dublin on a valid student visa for the past seven and a half years.

He said her visa had expired on January 23rd last and, while she had been living in Ireland illegally since then, she had remained in contact with the Garda National Immigration Bureau while attempting to negotiate a visa extension.

Mr Spencer said Ms Zhang had a long-term boyfriend and a close network of friends in Dublin. She spoke English, worked as a waitress to finance her college education and was seeking to regularise her status through proper channels.

“On August 1st last she had travelled by bus to Belfast to do some shopping in the sales and was returning to Dublin when Garda Philip McGovern boarded the bus at Dundalk,” Mr Spencer said.

She had been detained in Dundalk by Garda McGovern, an Immigration Officer, and following inquiries with the GNIB was “refused permission to land in the State.” Garda McGovern had directed that pending her removal from the State she be detained in Mountjoy Women’s Prison.

Mr Justice Michael Peart had been asked in an Article 40 application to release Ms Zhang on grounds that her detention was not in accordance with law.

The judge said Garda McGovern had entered the bus to determine whether passengers should be given permission to enter the State. Ms Zhang had identified herself with her Irish driving licence but had no valid visa. She had always been registered with the GNIB and had kept in touch with them following expiry of her visa.

“The court has no reason to believe that Ms Zhang was untruthful with Garda McGovern and there has been no evidence she was an evader operating under the radar in the hope of not being caught,” Judge Peart said.

While she had been living unlawfully in the State since January 23 she had been making efforts to regularize her position.

Judge Peart said that having left the State to shop in Northern Ireland Ms Zhang did not realise that to be doing so she was allowing herself, on her return, to be treated as a new entrant to the State.

He said Mr Spencer had argued that, having been resident for more than seven years, she ought not to have been arrested and detained for the purpose of removal from the State.

While Mr Spencer had submitted the relatively brief gap of absence from the State should have been ignored, the immigration laws did not make any allowance for somebody leaving the State for a day

“The applicant has to be treated as a new entrant,” Judge Peart told Fiona O’Sullivan, counsel for the State. “Garda McGovern was entitled to act as he did and form the suspicion he did and to arrest Ms Zhang and sign the warrant for her detention.”

In his view Ms Zhang’s detention was in accordance with law and he awarded the State its legal costs of defending the application for her release. Ms Zhang was returned to prison to await deportation.

Irish Independent