Family reunification case
Deputy Murphy raised the long-running case of an Iraqi-Irish citizen whose mother remains stranded in Turkey, saying previous questions and letters to Ministers have gone unanswered. The Minister said he was not familiar with the case but would raise it with the Foreign Affairs Minister if provided with the details.
I wish to raise a case about an Irish citizen who fled here from Iraq after the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIS, took over Mosul. His father and other close family members were murdered. He is currently in Ireland, but his mother remains in limbo, effectively, in Turkey and has been for years. This is the third time I have raised this case in the Dáil. I previously raised it with the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste and I am now raising it with the Minister. I have asked multiple parliamentary questions and sent multiple letters to the Minister for Justice, with many going unanswered. The answer is very simple: the family must be allowed to be reunified on a humanitarian basis. I ask the Government to do this. It is a simple humanitarian request.
Comment on this
I am not familiar with this specific case; I genuinely am not. The Deputy knows of the Government's response to the recent, and continuing, crisis in Afghanistan and other countries. We have been open, and rightly so, to giving people safe harbour here. On the repatriation and reunification of families, this is something that Ireland does pretty well. In regard to this specific case, I do not want to give the Deputy an answer he has received previously. I do not have the details but if the Deputy provides them, I assure him that I will raise the matter specifically with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Taoiseach.